I am shocked, shocked, shocked to discover a press spokesman
taping on-the-record conversations between his boss and reporters.
This
sort of recording took place only just about every time I interviewed a
politician during the 2008 presidential campaign. And during the 2003
gubernatorial campaign. And during most high-profile campaigns for office. And
during any number of impromptu press availabilities in the state Capitol. Such
taping, after all, is only legal in 38 states of the 50 states, so such an
obviously illegal act truly is outrageous. For someone to record such
conversations over the phone now, as former Jerry Brown spokesman Scott Gerber
did… Hey, did I mention I was shocked?
And I totally share the outrage on
both left and right over the attorney general’s investigation, which was so
cursory that it only released 93 pages of transcripts and emails that, in the
effort to cover up this terrible crime, revealed that Brown’s chief deputy Jim
Humes had advance warning of at least one of the tapings.
On the left, when the good folks at
Consumer Watchdog demand a thorough investigation, I completely agree 100
percent. Because this taping was revealed when the attorney general’s office
wrote a ballot initiative title and summary differently than they would have
liked, which is particularly outrageous because this is the attorney general’s
constitutional duty and the constitution puts this responsibility in the hands
of an elected official so that it won’t be tainted at all by politics, I’m
quite sure.
And on the right, when
conservatives and Republicans gubernatorial candidates demand investigation of
this taping, I agree with them too and am angered on their behalf when cynics
suggests that these calls for investigations are trumped up and motivated by
politics. It’s particularly outrageous that the attorney general’s office is
investigating investigative, secret-camera taping of ACORN folks saying some
bad things, and I, like my friends on the right, am hugely and pre-emptively
outraged at the results of an investigation that hasn’t been completed.
And I share the anger of my fellow
journalists at this terrible violation. The insult is even worse because of the
attorney general’s report, which outrageously establishes a clear precedent
permitting journalists to tape their on-the-record conversations without the
consent of others. This new journalistic freedom is a terrible breach in a
simply fantastic state law that would put journalists in jail for recording
conversations without the consent of all parties and/or for reporting on
conversations that other people recorded without consent. Let’s hope that there
aren’t any more breaches in this law, which we as journalists must fight to
uphold.
Most of all, I’m frustrated with
those pointy-headed thinking people in the foundations and the think tanks and
the editorial pages who would wonder why all of a sudden there’s this big fuss
about some taping when the state of California is a fiscal and political wreck.
Where are these people’s priorities? I mean, who cares that the state is such a
basket case that it had to give an extra point to buyers in its most recent
bond sale? That’s trivia. And why do those eggheads and goo goos keep talking about budget and constitutional reforms that don’t poll well when we have very serious matters of taping by a press spokesman being revealed?
The myopia of these people who
focus on fixing this state while possibly illegal tapes are made is just
shocking.