05/29/2013
Senate aide Brian Fallon to Justice Department
Meet the new boss: Brian Fallon will be a spokesman for AG Eric Holder. (Chip Somodevilla - GETTY IMAGES) Brian Fallon might have stayed busy as a spokesman for the notoriously press-eager Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), but he could find that his new job, handling media for Attorney General Eric Holder, is even more intense.
The longtime Schumer aide is moving to the Justice Department just as it is in the center of a controversy over investigations of journalists as part of government probes of leaks. Not that that’s anything new for Holder, who has faced intense scrutiny on a number of fronts, particularly over his department’s “Fast and Furious” gunwalking program.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/05/29/holder-to-get-new-spokesman-at-justice/
Brian Fallon, a longtime spokesman for Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and the Senate Democrats, has agreed to lead the Justice Department’s press operations, according to a person familiar with the matter. The position came open when Tracy Schmaler left the job in March.
Mr. Holder has said he will be reaching out to editors at major news organizations to discuss their concerns. Journalists protested after news emerged this month of searches of phone records of reporters and editors at the Associated Press, as well as searches of personal emails and phone records of a reporter at Fox News Channel. The two cases are unrelated but both involve an effort to ferret out those within the government who leaked intelligence secrets.
Mr. Holder has long faced criticism from the right on a number of fronts, including the botched Fast and Furious gun-smuggling investigation and his push to try some Guantanamo Bay terror detainees in federal court. The leak probes, however, have led to unusual criticism from some on the left.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/16/senate-spokesman-vs-thedc-video/#ixzz3CrRrkxze
Editor’s Note: Former Chuck Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon just landed a gig with The Daily Caller’s favorite department, the Department of Justice. To commemorate this great day, and all the fun times we’ve had with the DOJ, we’re digging a fun time we had with Brian out of TheDC Vault. Congrats, Bri Guy! And keep tapping our phones reading.
It’s no secret that reporters and Capitol Hill press secretaries don’t get along sometimes.
Case in point: The Daily Caller received a voicemail from an exhausted-sounding Senate spokesman last month who was a little, shall we say, displeased with the following headline:
“McCain fingers Schumer as media whore for ‘grandstanding’ on Ariz. immigration law“
“This is Brian Fallon at Chuck Schumer’s office,” the voice said. “I’m calling about the headline — I don’t give a crap about your story, but is ‘whore’ really a word that The Daily Caller uses in headlines on its website?”
Actually, yes.
“I don’t know if you were not responsible for the headline,” he told TheDC’s intrepid reporter, “But regardless, I suggest you take a look at how that looks on your website, and I would suggest maybe changing it.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper had the perfect response when the spokesman for the Department of Justice claimed to speak up for press freedom on Wednesday night.
Brian Fallon tweeted in support of Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly, who was arrested Wednesday night for simply doing his job of covering the tensions in Ferguson, Missouri. Fallon called Reilly “gutsy” for his coverage of the protests and said the DOJ is “lucky” to have him.
The problem, as Tapper pointed out, is that Fallon is currently part of the administration threatening to jail another journalist, James Risen, for doing his job.
(snip)
Jake Tapper @jaketapper
.@brianefallon how do you distinguish between the “gutsy” reporters and the one the administration is threatening to put in jail?
11:27 PM - 13 Aug 2014
Laughed out loud when I read the headline earlier today they are sooooo stupid!