Here's a list of news media members who have been under Washington's watch:
- The Associated Press: Telephone records for a number of lines over a period of weeks were taken by the feds. WND reported that the Obama administration said it pursued the news wire's records because a double agent in the war on terror was compromised by a story. However, the news agency's reporting on the issue didn't mention the agent. It was CIA Director John Brennan, who then was President Obama's terror adviser, who told members of Congress that the U.S. had "inside control" of the situation. Media then reported on the use of a double agent. That's according to a profile of the government's justification for pursuing the reporters' telephone records published in the Los Angeles Times, which was one of the publications that reported on the double agent after Brennan documented the situation to Congress. Government officials told the newspaper that it was an AP story May 7, 2012, about a foiled plot to blow up a passenger jet that prompted the controversy. AP held the story for five days at the request of the CIA. But the report said the story did not mention the informant.
- Fox News reporter James Rosen: The network's chief Washington correspondent was the subject of a DOJ probe because he was considered a possible criminal co-conspirator by the federal government. The Washington Post reported Rosen was the subject of a Department of Justice probe over his reporting on North Korea's reaction to United Nations sanctions. An FBI agent alleged in an affidavit that Rosen had broken the law "at the very least, either as an aider, abetter and/or co-conspirator." The government did not let him know he was being investigated. But his phone records, emails and security badge access records were investigated.
- James Rosen's parents. According to an online report, Fox News' Bret Baier confirmed that when Fox's Rosen's records were seized, so were those of his parents at their home on Staten Island. They were taken as part of the investigation of Rosen.
- Fox News reporter William La Jeunesse: He was targeted in a DOJ investigation into leaks about the scandal-plagued agency program that shipped guns to Mexican drug lords. The plan was that authorities would track the guns to the chiefs of Mexico's narcotics gangs, but it didn't happen. The federal government lost track of thousands of firearms, which later were linked to more than 300 deaths, including the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. La Jeunesse broke stories about the Fast and Furious scandal.
- Fox News producer Mike Levin: Levin was caught up in the same probe that targeted LaJeunesse.
- CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson: She reported her personal and work computers were compromised, but few other details have been released. "There could be some relationship between these things and what's happened to James [Rosen]," she said. She reported that the irregular activity on her computer was identified first two years ago while she was reporting on the Fast and Furious scandal.
