They Thought They Were Free

First They Came

When the Obama Administration labeled veterans as potential terrorists,
The Associated Press remained silent;
The AP were not fans of the military.

When they went after Gibson Guitar,
The AP remained silent;
AP reporters can buy Martin Guitars.

When they came for the home schoolers,
The Associated Press did not speak out;
Their kids attend private school

When they sicced the IRS on the Tea Party,
The Associated Press remained silent;
 They didn’t like the Tea Party.

When his administration came for the Associated Press,
there was no one left to speak out.

Up to now the MSM apparently thought it was acceptable for federal agencies to be guided by political motives so long as they were the correct political motives. The ones favored by the MSM.

The EPA’s harassment of the Gibson Guitar Company: no worry. The U.S. Energy Department provides loan guarantee to financially shaky Solyndra. It was in a good cause.  Obama’s recess appointments when the Senate wasn’t in recess: legal nitpicking. Former employees of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division report political bias: unimportant. The New Black Panther party gets a pass on voter intimidation: old news.

And that was before the Obama administration misled the public about Benghazi. Even then the MSM dismissed it as Republican mud slinging. After all, Hillary Clinton didn’t know why it mattered. But then testimony before Congress revealed “the rest of the story.” And it is such an ugly story that even some MSM columnists have said so.

On the heals of that scandal came revelations that the IRS used its power to delay approval of conservative groups applications for 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status; used its audit process to target conservatives, especially those who were outspoken in criticism of the Obama administration. And, maybe most shocking, the IRS leaked confidential financial information to antagonistic leftist groups. The president, as usual, professed to know nothing about anything.

But now the MSM is shocked …shocked I tell you …to learn that the Obama administration is capable of both deceit and betrayal. This late acquaintance with reality is the result of still another scandal; this one about the Obama Justice Department secretly obtaining Associated Press phone records from 20 different cellular, office and home phones for over two months. The subpoened phone records included personal and office lines for reporters, editors, and AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery. The purpose was to determine responsibility for the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year.  AP’s president called Justice Department’s actions a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into news-gathering activities.

In an unusually coordinated voice, ABC, CNN and NBC called the administration’s Benghazi bluff. They demanded the release of the Benghazi emails regarding the bogus “the video made them do it” talking points. Their message being that if the president had told the truth there was no reason to withhold them. The emails were reluctantly provided late this afternoon. Early reports indicate that, contrary to previous denials, the White House and the State Department were heavily involved in constructing the Benghazi cover story.

It was bound to happen. Progressives, an appellation the president embraces, believe that the Constitution is an outdated encumbrance to the necessary exercise of power. Officials who do not respect the rule of law are free to do whatever they perceive as necessary in a given situation. This time that involved, in the words of Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists, “an astonishing assault on the core values of our society.”

This administration, before which members of the MSM had faithfully genuflected, is now revealed to have bitten them in their exposed posteriors.

Such wounds, while never fatal, do puncture inflated egos.  They may also lead to such instant conversions as turning sycophants into journalists.

Let us hope.