TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

The Washington Post reported Sunday about a Justice Department investigation into James Rosen, Fox News’ chief political correspondent in Washington, for a story he wrote in 2009 that used apparently leaked classified information about North Korea:

Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.” That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target.

…

Court documents show abundant evidence gathered from Kim’s office computer and phone records, but investigators said they needed to go a step further to build their case, seizing two days’ worth of Rosen’s personal e-mails — and all of his e-mail exchanges with Kim.

Privacy protections limit searching or seizing a reporter’s work, but not when there is evidence that the journalist broke the law against unauthorized leaks. A federal judge signed off on the search warrant — agreeing that there was probable cause that Rosen was a co-conspirator.

Journalists are not protected from searches when they report unauthorized “leaks” of classified information. Think about that: what that means is journalists should only feel safe to report information that they obtain through other channels or that the government intentionally releases to them.

There’s nothing free about a press that faces investigation for reporting information the government doesn’t made public.