A letter from California Attorney General Jerry Brown has surfaced that deals a tremendous blow to sham internal investigations everywhere. Brown, also a California gubernatorial candidate, has requested the Alameda County district attorney look into secret tapings his office conducted with five different news reporters on six different occasions. California is what’s known as a “two-party state,” that is, it is illegal to record someone without their consent. Brown’s former communication director recorded the conversations and has since resigned; still the Attorney General’s office has asserted secretly recording news reporters is legal if it is for public use.
Brown’s office announced an internal investigation into the matter and was roundly condemned by the right for undertaking a case in which it has a vested interest.
Brown’s position on the recordings strikes the Big Government editorial panel as arrogant. First, the Attorney General is in the process of investigating the ACORN filmmakers for violating laws about secret tape-recordings while conducting similar recordings himself… repeatedly. Second, Brown conducted an internal investigation on himself (much like John Podesta of Media Matters and Andy Stern of the SEIU conducting the internal investigation of ACORN) for nearly three weeks before he solicited a third party. And judging by the wording in the attached letter, Brown seems none too happy to pass that duty elsewhere.
Much like the internal investigations movement, Brown might be hurting right now. Stay tuned…
A complete article on the controversy here. Read the letter below:
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