Following a request by Gawker Media for records of correspondence between Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and Roger Ailes of Fox News, Gawker recieved a letter back declaring that Ailes is a "confidential adviser," and therefore exempt from New Jersey's Open Records Act.
Nope. That's not fishy at all.
The office of Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is claiming that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes is a confidential adviser whose interactions with the governor should remain secret under New Jersey's executive privilege.
Last month, after New York magazine reported that Ailes met with Christie last summer and called him this year to urge him to run for president, Gawker filed a request under New Jersey's Open Records Act seeking any correspondence between the two men, as well as any records of meetings or phone calls with Ailes from Christie's schedule or call logs.
Claiming executive privilege is nothing new, but using that privilege to claim a news executive as a confidential adviser is. And from my point of view, this is a dangerous merger of state secrecy with the head of a major propaganda organization.