Public affairs director Mindy Tucker’s role in the AP subpoena came about because of a department policy that spells out the process for handling proposed subpoenas for news reporters. In a fact sheet handed out to reporters recently, the department said that, in the case of any request to subpoena a member of the news media, the director of public affairs also makes a recommendation. The Justice Department went after the records while trying to identify law enforcement officials who gave the Associated Press details about a wire-tap intercept of Senator Robert “The Torch” Torricelli (D-NJ). DOJ received the records just ten days after the May 4 AP story on Torricelli ran.
Now, the same media that is behind the so-called McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform, the anti-constitutionalists, are all wound up here about DOJ subpoenaing telephone records of an AP reporter. I’m not excited about the government subpoenaing these records, either. Don’t misunderstand. My point is, unlike the liberal media in this country, I am consistent. The very same media which waves around the First Amendment to protect its high position in our society, demands that this very same government which they distrust deny the rest of us our constitutional First Amendment right to speak out, for or against political candidates.