Department of Justice vs. Fox News

Gutfeld: Department of Justice vs. Fox News

Government seeking to criminalize investigative journalism?

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," May 22, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: So, it turns out the Obama administration not only looked at Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen's personal emails, but also FOX News executive phone records. I'm kind of insulted I haven't been investigated. What am I doing right?

This boils down to one fact -- the FBI enabled government access to Rosen's emails by signing an affidavit accusing him of a crime. They made it illegal to look for information, essentially criminalizing asking questions, which makes sense given how little the government cares to investigate big things like voters intimidation, ACORN, Fast and Furious, Pigford, and Benghazi.

What difference does it make is the rallying cry of the willfully ignorant.

So, considering the overlooked corruption after Rosen seems like a cop ignoring a riot to chase a jaywalker. The government calling Rosen a co-conspirator is like Chris Matthews calling someone as unstable. The big point, before exceptionalism was dropped in favor of Western guilt, it used to be us versus them. America versus its enemies.

Remove the belief in our greatness and you got a new belief, progressive government and anything that stands in the way. The enemies are not you and me, and we are bigger problem than terror, which is nothing more than workplace violence. You see the thread?

Any government who cannot identify evil becomes more likely to see evil everywhere. If we can blame a video, we can certainly find Rosen guilty of something, too. I never really liked him anyway, he keeps stealing my pens.

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Your depends?

GUTFELD: Not my depends, Dana. My pens.

By the way, thank goodness they didn't tap your phones. All they'd hear is Jasper this and Jasper that.

PERINO: Not very interesting.

GUTFELD: No.

PERINO: I actually never thought was James Rosen was that interesting a guy. But now, I'm going to have to change my opinion.

ANDREA TANTAROS, CO-HOST: Whoa! Whoa!

PERINO: I mean, I've known him for years. I was press secretary when he was there and as a reporter and he was like a guy in the room.

GUTFELD: Just some guy.

PERINO: Like no one would ever think like, oh, we should tap his phones because maybe he's got some secret information.

GUTFELD: He does a mean William Shatner impersonation.

PERINO: He really does. I do one, too. I'll save it for later.

BECKEL: In defense of Rosen, he wrote a book about Watergate, which broke a lot of grounds.

PERINO: Yes, how ironic.

BECKEL: Yes, it is. Right.

But he is an investigative reporter. And I've read that book and I thought I knew everything about Watergate and I didn't. And this had to do with John Mitchell.

So I think this -- we may be underestimating Rosen here as a reporter and --

PERINO: Yes. I was not --

TANTAROS: Yes, for the record. James, if you're listening, I find him wildly entertaining and very charming.

(LAUGHTER)

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: I know you were joking, but I just wanted to make that point on Rosen's behalf.

PERINO: James, I love you and I love that picture you drew of me --

BECKEL: She really doesn't mean that, James. But that's OK.

GUTFELD: Dana, it's too late.

TANTAROS: But isn't that point? If you read the affidavit, it seems like the government was nervous was the way in which James Rosen was so kind and friendly to Kim. If that is conspiracy because he is nice guy --

GUTFELD: Yes.

TANTAROS: I mean, that's one thing, he's a nice guy. It's not a criminal activity. But take yourself back to what was happening when all of this was going on. These three scandals, the Tea Party rallies, those town hall meetings, Christie had won in New Jersey, McDonnell had won in Virginia, Scott Brown had won in Massachusetts, they had lost that legacy seat to Kennedy. All this was happening, Obamacare was happening.

They were targeting whether it was "The A.P." scandal, when they were going back to Fast and Furious, or whether it was the IRS, the same people that threatened their power. That's the common thread.

BECKEL: Well, this was about North Korea, let's keep that in mind.

TANTAROS: Oh, no. Yes, sure it was.

ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: No, it wasn't about North Korea. It was about any of the other things. It was about the enemies' list. It was sending a clear signal that they are stronger.

BECKEL: No, I'm talking about Rosen.

BOLLING: I am, too. The Department of Justice, with this ridiculous overreach, to call Rosen a co-conspirator -- I read the search warrant.

Here's what some of the things in the search warrant, boxes checked, evidence of a crime checked. Boxes checked. Evidence of future crimes checked. Intended information -- material intended for use in a crime, checked. Punishable by up to 10 years in prison. I mean --

PERINO: Every reporter in America should be guilty of the same thing.

BECKEL: That's right. He was doing his job.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: But it was about North Korea.

PERINO: But the weird thing about the North Korea thing --

BOLLING: What they said it was about --

TANTAROS: It's far bigger than North Korea, Bob. It's far bigger.

PERINO: But also on the North Korea piece, it wasn't as if there was an imminent threat to life, OK? It wasn't like somebody had a source and it was a terrorist who knew that there was going to be building attacked and you're trying to track that down to prevent loss of life.

This was about a nuclear weapons program maybe that's being built in North Korea. Not really sure.

There didn't seem to be any reason. The judge has apologized for lack of transparency in the leak.

The Obama Justice Department should have to apologize for overreach for asking for the warranted in the first place.

BOLLING: So Rosen is called a co-conspirator in this crime for being provocative, of asking questions, doing his job.

Yet when The New York Times puts on the front page details of Obama's kill list, how he decides who goes on it, who gets killed and who doesn't, it's not investigated. When the details surrounding the bin Laden kill are leaked to every left wing media site first, there's no investigation. No one is going to jail for that. No one phones are tapped for that.

GUTFELD: Should we be surprised? I mean, it was Obama's aides that were trying to delegitimize FNC for so long that this.

TANTAROS: Yes.

GUTFELD: And, by the way, the media really didn't seem to mind, did they?

TANTAROS: Yes. And they had -- if you look at all three scandals, too -- the motive, right? You could -- does it lead to President Obama's doorstep? We don't have a smoking gun but there is motive for all three scandals. A motive to do all of them.

BECKEL: Can I just make a point that go back to this Rosen thing.

Just so I want to make sure we make this clearly here. He wrote online on FOX about the North Korean program.

BOLLING: We know that. No one is disputing that, Bob.

BECKEL: So what are you suggesting, that they used -- that they found -- they went hunting for something else?

BOLLING: It had nothing to do with North Korea. I'm suggesting it had something to send a signal to FOX and all the other --

BECKEL: Oh, I see. I see.

BOLLING: Maybe not in the world of Obama --

BECKEL: Is oblique a ban word?

GUTFELD: It could be.

BECKEL: Well, that was oblique.

TANTAROS: But it's the same thing as "The A.P." scandal, though, Bob, right? A hundred phone lines, why such a big net? If they are going after whistleblowers, why the media, why not the government employees? Why so big and so vast for one story or two stories.

GUTFELD: And it calls into the Petraeus stuff. Why was that scandal, all of the sudden, happening?

PERINO: Remember that question like how did his emails get revealed?

GUTFELD: All of a sudden, right around Benghazi, he has to leave. Kind of weird. It's all weird, Bob.

BECKEL: Yes. You are blaming Obama administration for Petraeus' affair. Is that what you are suggesting?

GUTFELD: No, what I'm saying, the timing now -- now you can look back and look at the timing, and it does seem weird.

BOLLING: So, can we make this clear? So, all these leaks, Rosen, North Korea, the airliner and the ones that New York Times that got the kill list -- all had to be leaked. Someone had to get that.

Is The New York Times reporter a co-conspirator in that crime also, should he be?

PERINO: And who was the co? Right.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Well, that's the question. Are they in the White House?

BECKEL: James Rosen, there is no reason for him to be brought up as a co-conspirator. And there will be -- that will last in court in five minutes.

GUTFELD: All right. We're going to move on. At least we learned one thing, Dana cannot stand James Rosen.

(LAUGHTER)

GUTFELD: Wow. I thought we were a family here.

PERINO: A family.

Content and Programming Copyright 2013 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2013 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.