I agree that the DOJ did not likely get the content of the calls, but the fact remains that the DOJ did get the information that the calls were being made, and to whom and from whom. It has its own benefit, as the military has used this sort of information for a long time, known as “traffic analysis.”
If the DOJ can piece together which reporter is talking to which Congressman, you don’t necessarily need to know what they said. It would be enough to know that if a reporter is regularly talking to a conservative Congressman, that reporter gets “blacklisted” and isn’t invited to Carney’s private backstage media parties.
It’s still pretty Stalinist.
I agree that the whole thing smells. Your point is well taken, and is why the AP is up in arms. Having that much raw data can tell the DOJ a lot about their news gathering operations even without being able to listen to the calls.
But there was a clarification by the congressman quoted in the post. He said that the phone records grabbed by the DOJ were for the phones in the Congressional Press gallery, not in the cloakroom as previously thought. So unless the congressmen use the phone in the press gallery, the records gathered would not necessarily give them any information about calls the members of congress were making or receiving. That doesn’t make it any better, just clarifies the details a bit.