Check the date, people: CNN's Jake Tapper shares prescient tweet about press freedoms

As Twitchy reported Thursday night, the Justice Department seized the phone and email records of New York Times reporter Ali Watkins in a search for evidence against former Senate intel staffer James Wolfe, who was charged with lying to investigators about leaking to the press.

Many journalists were appalled by the Justice Department’s actions, and The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein said it was “a gross, gross use government power” and “a chilling decision.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper decided to try a little thought experiment Friday, posting this tweet:

Even if you side with this president over those who challenge him and his administration, it is important to remember the precedent actions violating press freedoms set going forward. Perhaps when it is not your guy who is in the White House.https://t.co/mU4XWf33hl

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 8, 2018

People on both sides of the aisle were outraged.

https://twitter.com/BASaner71/status/1005469537020579845

This is how dictators control their press and citizens. @GOP who always screams about their constitutional rights, he’s wiping his fat, saggy ass with it and you have done nothing. https://t.co/5DrBGLRZfc

— tc (@Jafo56) June 8, 2018

#Deplorables aren’t even thinking about *this* move, let alone the next one. https://t.co/tnmO2YSmhM

— Nattydread (@nattydead) June 8, 2018

Authoritarianism. https://t.co/btLySMaom8

— Mike Pichini (@MikePichini) June 8, 2018

Could not agree with you more Jake!! I can not stand hypocrites. We have a constitution for a reason and it should be followed. All the people on the right who are cheering for this remember this when it is a amendment you care deeply for. This is not ok

— Jennifer Hertzler (@JenniferHertzl2) June 9, 2018

The thought experiment, though, is that Tapper’s tweet about “this president” and believing in press freedom even “when it is not your guy who is in the White House” is actually a quote lifted directly from a 2013 blog post warning about the precedent set by the Obama administration when it labeled Fox News’s James Rosen a “co-conspirator” and seized the phone records of Rosen’s parents. So “this president,” in context of the tweet, is Barack Obama.

But you’d have to click the linked blog post to get it. Pretty sneaky, Tapper.

Posting this was an intellectual experiment and the results were sadly what they were. https://t.co/8h1oeV7qK3

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 9, 2018

Tapper re-posts 5 year old blog critical of Obama DOJ targeting Fox reporter. Hilarity ensues. https://t.co/2ifhmHh8wB

— Dan Dufresne (@dandufresne) June 9, 2018

Great experiment by Jake Tapper. Indignant outrage without actually reading his article (or checking date for reference). Outrage without trying to understand intent is why we are where we are today https://t.co/pqNqn9KD3s

— Heather Lara (@OurLivingWorld) June 9, 2018

Perhaps the first and only time that reading the comments on a well-known person’s tweets is illuminating. And depressing.

Well played, @jaketapper https://t.co/H8vKxsquNi

— Adam Felber (@adamfelber) June 9, 2018

The faux outrage from Democrats over this administration's war on leaks is fairly hilarious. https://t.co/uKMph7qG1U

— Ben Guthrie Stewart (@benguthstew) June 9, 2018

https://twitter.com/schmiedsrr/status/1005440899239809024

https://twitter.com/TDurbin/status/1005450670340624384

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