OBAMA “TROUBLED” BY DOJ’S PRESS PROBES

President Obama said on Thursday that he was “troubled” by the investigation of reporters by his own Justice Department but said that he is attempting to strike “the right balance between our security and our open society.” The president himself, in a speech on his counterterrorism policy, appeared to be balancing his own response to growing anger among the fourth estate to revelations that the department had seized the phone records of Associated Press reporters and email messages of Fox News reporter James Rosen. Earlier this week The New York Times in an editorial accused the Obama administration of going “beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.” In a speech, Obama said that he believes “we must keep information secret that protects our operations and our people in the field. … To do so, we must enforce consequences for those who break the law and breach their commitment to protect classified information. But a free press is also essential for our democracy.” Later on Thursday the Department of Justice said that Attorney General Eric Holder will meet with media representatives to review the leak investigations. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to following all laws and regulations intended to safeguard national security as well as the First Amendment interests of the press in reporting the news and the public in receiving it,” the DOJ said. Also on Thursday, NBC investigative journalist Michael Isikoff reporter that Holder himself signed off on the search warrant that identified Rosen as a possible coconspirator , thereby authorizing the seizure of his private emails.