ED MORRISSEY IS ALSO WONDERING WHY THE MEDIA IS OKAY WITH THE FBI PROBING A MEDIA ORGANIZATION.

These aren’t questions designed to let Sputnik and RT off the hook. Both of them have reputations as shills for Putin and harbors for anti-American cranks, which is why they have about the same level of credibility that TASS and Pravda had back in the day. The White House Correspondents Association could have denied Sputnik credentials without getting the FBI involved, however, which might have reduced their credibility even further. Their market reach surely has been limited by their laughable propaganda.

The issue here is whether the FBI and DoJ should get into the business of regulating foreign news agencies, regardless of their connection to foreign governments. FARA is intended to heighten transparency in lobbying, not news media, and expanding it into the media realm could set dangerous precedents down the road for Americans engaged in free speech. Will the FBI look into those websites who regurgitated Sputnik’s nonsense for FARA violations, merely for publicly agreeing with it? In another administration, might pro-Israel websites and journalists get similarly probed for backing them?

I don’t find this entirely reassuring: “Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent, noted that the FBI ‘stays away from REAL journalists.'” I actually know and like Asha Rangappa, but I also remember the Vanessa Leggett case, where the DOJ’s judgment on that question seemed poor. I wrote a piece on that subject for the Wall Street Journal.