Calbuzz: Jerry Brown Must Fire Flack Who Secretly Taped Reporters
by PubliusFrom the Calbuzz Blog:
The stunning news that a spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown secretly taped a conversation with SF Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci, admitting that this something he did routinely, leaves Brown with one and only option: fire the flack immediately.
The paper reported Friday that Brown press spokesman Scott Gerber acknowledged taping the call, apparently in direct violation of California Penal Code Section 632, which says that conversations may not be taped without notice to all parties.
Dick Nixon must be rolling over in his grave.
That a public official so off-handedly violated state law on such a sensitive subject is unacceptable. That the official works for the chief law enforcement officer of California makes it outrageous. That the call focused on a corporation that both had sensitive business before Brown’s office and had made a major campaign contribution to him puts it beyond the pale.
Brown needs to distance himself from Gerber – and fast. No slap on the wrist and mealy-mouthed comments about Gerber promising to actually obey the law in the future will suffice. Surreptitiously taping a reporter – or any citizen – reeks of sleazy, John Mitchell-era government threat and intimidation. Brown’s got one play here and he needs to make it soon.
Update: Chris Reed at Politicker just posted an interesting take on this. He interviewed Gerber about the ACORN scandal last month and asked him why Brown was investigating the fake pimp and prostitute who had videotaped employees of the group offering help with their fake business and plans for human smuggling, along with the allegations raised by the tapes:
“Gerber told me the AG was investigating because it is illegal in California to tape someone without their knowledge. Which makes today’s S.F. Chronicle story even more amazing.”
Original story here.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
28 Comments
Again, the Left's worldview dictates that the laws do not apply to the Left's celebrities/politicians (how do you tell?). The absurdity of not going after ACORN and investigating the two greatest journalists in America stands on its own. This takes it to another level. You couldn't make this stuff up.
Typical Progressive Democrat interpretation: "Rules are for thee but not for me."
Fire. Them. All.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by greychampion, Big Government. Big Government said: Calbuzz: Jerry Brown Must Fire Flack Who Secretly Taped Reporters: From the Calbuzz Blog: The stunn.. http://digg.com/u1FT4p #tcot #tlot [...]
Oddly enough, didn't Moonbeam Jerry Brown "announce" that he was going to "investigate" Hannah and James, because they had taped ACORN? Poor Jerry, he never could get things right, evidently his people can't either. Kalifornication at its finest……………
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by conservatweet: [BigGov] Calbuzz: Jerry Brown Must Fire Flack Who Secretly Taped Reporters: From the Calbuzz Blog.. http://bit.ly/1tYeGp
#tcot…
this is good for us in california he is the dems number 1 man running for govenor. looks like we should be able to win that race!
Following the law, are other peoples problem. Namely if you are a conservative!
Is Obama retarded?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/politics/july-dec09/travel_10-30.html
He just lifted the ban against letting HIV infected people immigrate here freely.
Is Obama retarded?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/politics/july...
He just lifted the ban against letting HIV infected people immigrate here freely.
Is he retarded?
I'll try to answer you, as soon as I stop laughing hysterically………………..
Speaking of retarded, what I'd really like to know, is who the idiot was, that recomended lifting the ban?
Probably his population control czar – hell, he probably said that Republicans use condoms less and so more HIV means more democrats or poorer Republicans.
Wait! Wait! This was illegal, right? So he needs to be dismissed? If Giles and O'Keefe are being investigated with even the thought of prosecution, this this dude belongs in jail, right? Am I missing something here? He did it. He says he did it. He says he knew it was illegal.
Giles and O'Keefe were acting as members of the press, and the (liberal) press has traditional been allowed (miles and miles of) extra leeway in the course of their investigations on the grounds that freedom of information and a free press will work in the public interest.
This dude was acting as a political hack working against the interest of the public and for the interest of his employer. Where is the question?
Go directly to jail.
Do not collect $200.
(a) Every person who, intentionally and without the consent of
all parties to a confidential communication, blah blah blah
(c) The term "confidential communication" includes any
communication carried on in circumstances as may reasonably indicate
that any party to the communication desires it to be confined to the
parties blah blah blah
Ignorance is NO excuse…It appears that the communications were NOT desired to be confined to the parties, i.e. Pimp and Prostitute where talking to ACON workers in open office, hallways, and in the case of San Bernardino, with a neihgbor!
illegal wire taps in California by Dems, and also… now DEM drugs/ecstacy found in New Jersey weith multiple felonies….my, my, my…what will we uncover tomorrow…..hmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm
remember folks, election this Tuesday….make sure you vote these clowns out of office…………….hmmmm, hmmmm, good
Pot meets Kettle in the midst of a heated debate, who is calling who what?
I agree…….. but, don't forget…..BHO said his healthcare reform would not cover illegal immigrants……..right…..YOU LIE!!!!
now we can see he is trying to open the door for all of Africa's HIV patients to enter the USA and get free Pelozzi care, subsidized by US taxpayers….I am sure that will make him popular with the UN and his relatives back home…..but, wait a minute, which doctors will be lined up to care for these patients on a Medicaid salary??? maybe this is what he got the Nobel for????????????????????????
Which doctors?
The Witch Doctors, of course.
Umm, I have a question about something.
(Emphasis added) That the call focused on a corporation that both had sensitive business before Brown’s office and had made a major campaign contribution to him puts it beyond the pale.
Why should that matter? Or does being a major contributor grant you an expectation, that must be respected, of even greater closed-door privacy than "normal" organizations and citizens?
Kalifornia needs to be walled in. All emigrants in the last 15 years need to be sent back because they are ruining the sates they emigrated too. They destroyed Kalifornia with their milk-toast socialist voting and they are starting to erode those states that they moved into.
Why did they move?
Because Kalifornia is a cesspool of illegal immigration, tax and spending, too much liberalization and liberal stupidity, like banning nuclear power plants and then whining because they incur brownouts. The sheer idiocy boggles a normal persons mind.
These are very ignorant dependent minded dolts people. Kalifornia is done, stick a fork in its leftist governing and start over but don't bail them out anymore, let them live in the cesspool they built. Let them bask in the garbage dump with brownouts, filthy neighborhoods and dumbed down population. Maybe they'll wake up one day and learn to self govern. Maybe they'll learn that the founding fathers were right and individual freedom brings out the best in everybody and because of that lifts everybody else.
Meanwhile the rest of us can live without sending our tax dollars to Kalifornia to bail them out and server warning to New York that they're next if the don't get a handle on it.
But, but, but, but what if Linda Ronstadt campaigns for him?
LOL — That would just make it more of a slam-dunk for Jerry's opponent.
I'm sure as heck not defending Obama, but actually Congress voted on this last year and Bush signed it into law in August, 2008. Obama just put the law into effect and true to his narcissist nature, is taking the credit for it.
[...] A.G. Moonbeam has entered the latest, Nixonian phase of his long, checkered career: his flacks are secretly recording reporters: The stunning news that a spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown secretly taped a conversation [...]
Just another example of the Left's "do as I say, not as I do" hypocrisy.
I focused on that too, so if you don't have "sensitive business" or you "did NOT make a MAJOR campaign contribution" you should expect the AG to commit a felonious act and record your calls. Huh? That's a bit offensive!
Souble standard and hypocrisy stamped all over it, with bells on. Thank God for the INDPENDANT FREEDOM LOVING PRESS of entities like Big Gov and Fox. I can't wait for the Oxposure broadcast on FOX tonight at 9 EST. Popcorn time.:)
California is a donor state which means we only get back only 78% of every federal dollar we are taxed. I say let's keep our dollar and let the freeloader states make it on their own.
California's problems have much to do with our dysfunctional constitution, which can be much too easily amended with ballot initiatives. Further exacerbating the problem are prohibitions within the constitution on limiting the way lawmakers collect and spend revenues. Added to that a supermajority is needed to even pass the state budget.
A good primer on the systemic problems with California's governmental system can be found in an article by California Supreme Court Justice Ronald M. George, published in the San Francisco Chronicle, November 1, 2009.
All you blowhards who "hate" California so much would do well to educate yourselves.
Is our government silly and capricious? Yes, and only a change in key components of our state constitution can remedy that. Do we have illegals here that don't belong? Absolutely. Is this a difficult state to do business in? From a tax perspective, it is. But we are also a state of innovators for the future and we have a rich history. I dare say if California did not exist (and I hear many comments about how it should be "walled off" or "exterminated") the country would be a less vibrant place for it. Go ahead America, try to do without California.
Nice post, with lots of good links. Thanks.