Orange County Register

 7 Comments

• rlh says:

  October 30, 2009 at 7:29 pm

  This is about as insightful as labelling anything you regard as a potential political scandal as “Whatever-Gate,” or the playing fast and loose with history incoled in those currently howling over the Whote House’s calling Fox News what it eminently is - a biased hack machine posing as a legitimate news organization.

  But since we seem to be doomed to play this little game, let’s have a go:

  Nixon taped his own private office conversations, in which he essentially hung himself as a fulmouthed criminal and a bigot. He did so in an atmosphere in whicxh every President for about 20 years before him had done something similar (though certainly not with his typical degree of thoroughness). Nixon’s system was perfectly legal;, though it recorded the worst sort of scoundrels and the seamiest sorts of conduct. Had he not been plotting bribery, obstruction of justice, suborning perjury etc the system would have been no big deal at all.

  Brown, on the other hand, is accused of taping telephone calls with reporters - presumably on the record discussions.

  Is this a violation of law? Probably. One wonders if the reporters aren’t in pari delicto - how many times did they make their own tapes of what the AG office had to say to them. But leaving that aside, there’s probably a violation of law here. So what? Has anyone been injured? I understand the hypocrisy angle of the AG breaking the law, but unfortunately lots of people break this one, and I doubt it’s limited to the AG.

  The only thing that gives this story traction is that it was done to poor, eternally put upon reporters. In that, the disproportionate howling is quite akin to the staged outrage at Fox over the Obama administration’s sin at uttering a simple and well known truth about Fox’s bankruptcy as a legitimate news source on any political subject (the weather and sports, I’ll trust them on). The media love to feel put upon, downtroden, waging a lonely shadowy fight against creeping totalitarianism that only they, the good guys with the inkstained fingers, can possibly understand (much less win). It feeds into their self esteem, their often too-puffed up sense of self importance. To be polite, give me a break. The only harm that might come of this would be reporters who misquote an AG source being called to the carpet for their error.

  PS - for those who’ll respond with righteous outrage over my dissing Fox news, go check out John Stewart’s recent Daily Show piece on the network. Comedy is a great way to expose the soft underbelly of the pompous.

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  • Donkey says:

    October 31, 2009 at 4:31 pm

    John Stewert? What a joke!
    We either follow the law or we have what you have just tried to justify. A few that are sworn to uphold the lawbut breaking it with impunity. While all others are held to a higher and much riskier standared when confronted by the upholders.
    Your analysis has gotten us to the screwed up system we have now.

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• Chris says:

  November 1, 2009 at 8:18 pm

  I remember reading about this law 20 years ago and coming away puzzled by its intent. The case was strange, a guy about to be murdered in his office flips on the dictaphone (undetected) before getting executed. The cops can’t solve the case until they play back the dictaphone. The murderer gets the dictaphone evidence excluded because he didn’t agree to be taped before he killed the guy. That was the first time I heard about this law and you can imagine I have a hard time with it. The Brown case seems equally stupid.

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• Johnny Blaze, Ghost Rider says:

  November 1, 2009 at 9:00 pm

  The case was strange, a guy about to be murdered in his office flips on the dictaphone (undetected) before getting executed. The cops can’t solve the case until they play back the dictaphone. The murderer gets the dictaphone evidence excluded because he didn’t agree to be taped before he killed the guy. That was the first time I heard about this law and you can imagine I have a hard time with it.
  =========================
  That evidence would never be excluded. Please name this case.

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  • Chris says:

    November 2, 2009 at 7:52 am

    The evidence rule is state by state unless the call crosses state boundaries when it becomes a federal issue. Some states (CA, FLA …) require both parties. Some states (ALA, AZ) require only one party. Federal law only requires one party.

    This is the LA times story from 1987:

    http://articles.latimes.com/1987-01-15/local/me-4536_1_tape-judge-defendant

    Anyways, you were right about Newsome dropping out.

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• ocobserver says:

  November 2, 2009 at 7:18 am

  If it’s true, you can’t really blame Brown as much as reporters lie. Kinda funny tho. Sort of like the battle of the liars - politicians vs. reporters. And it’s not so much what reporters say - it’s what they don’t say. The rest of the story that’s never told. And in my mind that’s just as bad - in a nation that purports to have a free press - than a politician outright telling a whopper which is so common these days. And if that’s the best they can come up with against Brown in his 40+ years in politics I equate him to Little Lord Fauntleroy. In the early running I am leaning toward giving moonbeam my vote for the governor’s seat. Not because I really like him. Only because I think he is so old that he will not be afraid to step on toes in Sacramento because he knows this is probably his last run and the end of his political career. The rest of them (dems and pubs) will sell their souls to build their careers. I’ve seen this same scenario play out too many times in the past. Until politicians are held criminally liable for telling lies during their campaigns for office nothing will change either. Today the intelligent voter will vote for the man/woman least likely to engage in the act of lying. That is the reality that we are confronted with in modern-day America.

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• Loufca says:

  November 2, 2009 at 8:11 am

  I wonder if Jerry Brown can arrest himself? It wouldn’t surprise me if he did. It would be interesting to see him handcuff himself.

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