Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson continued to criticize the Obama administration's for its assault on press freedom on Wednesday's "Morning Joe" after more news broke of the Department of Justice spying on reporters, saying it was "simply wrong" to criminalize investigative journalism.
He added he received flak from fellow liberals for daring to rebuke the president.
"I found it outrageous," Robinson said. "I got blasted by people whose politics I agree with for criticizing the administration on this, but the administration is simply wrong."
Robinson's Tuesday column called out the government for mistaking whistleblowing and journalism for espionage:
The Obama administration has no business rummaging through journalists’ phone records, perusing their e-mails and tracking their movements in an attempt to keep them from gathering news. This heavy-handed business isn’t chilling, it’s just plain cold.
It also may well be unconstitutional. In my reading, the First Amendment prohibition against "abridging the freedom . . . of the press" should rule out secretly obtaining two months’ worth of the personal and professional phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, including calls to and from the main AP phone number at the House press gallery in the Capitol. Yet this is what the Justice Department did.
The unwarranted snooping, which was revealed last week, would be troubling enough if it were an isolated incident. But it is part of a pattern that threatens to redefine investigative reporting as criminal behavior.