Why AP?

Reporters across The Associated Press are outraged over the Justice Department’s sweeping seizure of staff phone records — and they say such an intrusion could chill their relationships with confidential sources.

“People are pretty mad — mad that government has not taken what we do seriously,” one reporter said on Tuesday.

Politico

Why?

The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of providing classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined.

The U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot.  

The May 7 story was written by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman with contributions from reporters Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan and Alan Fram. They and their editor, Ted Bridis, were among the journalists whose April-May 2012 phone records were seized by the government.  

Mywaynews

Too Far?

The purpose of the subpoena was to allegedly track the leak, the "confidential sources", not to go after the reporters.  So now the question remains, was the Justice Department within it's legal purview in subpoenaing these records in the investigation into the illegal release of classified information. or... have they gone too far?