ViralRead has covered the ‘extraordinary steps’ that the Department of Justice apparently took to investigate Fox News reporter James Rosen without his knowledge, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how far the administration has gone to disarm its favorite right-wing news organization. The Rosen seizure closely follows the charge that the DOJ secretly obtained two months of phone records from Associated Press journalists as part of a different leak probe.

National Review’s Eliana Johnson reports:

In June of 2009, the president complained about a “certain cable network” devoted entirely to attacking his administration. Four months later, former White House communications director Anita Dunn in 2009 said of Fox, “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent,” adding, “We don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.” The administration went on to try to exclude Fox from the network pool that covers the White House, making a recent appointee — pay czar Kenneth Feinberg — available for interviews to every network but Fox. When the other networks refused to conduct the interview until Fox was included, the White House relented. But the verbal assault continued, with Obama telling Rolling Stone magazine in 2010 that the network represents a point of view that is “ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive  in the world.”