Is history repeating itself?

If a person didn’t know better, one might think we’re back in 1972.

We have covert investigations of the media by the Justice Department, the IRS targeting conservative groups with tax probes and foreign policy faux pas that some people say are being covered up by the administration.

Admittedly, Benghazi is not Vietnam and the secret Associated Press phone scrutiny is not the Pentagon Papers imbroglio, but the 2013 incidents are a little worrisome.

It makes one wonder whether the bad old days of the Nixon administration are being revived in the Obama administration.

The perversion of justice went so far back then that a special group — aptly named the White House Plumbers — was formed to investigate supposed leaks of national security secrets. The plumbing got out of hand, of course, and led to burglary, enemies’ lists, obstruction of justice and eventually the end of a presidency.

The obsession over plugging leaks tainted the Nixon administration.

It’s interesting to note, however, that the Obama administration, according to the Washington Post, has prosecuted six government officials suspected of releasing state secrets. That’s more than all previous administrations combined.

The secretive process by which the Justice Department obtained phone records for 21 AP phone numbers appears to be too far-reaching an attempt by the government to find the source who provided information to the media. It’s even, dare we say it, Nixonian.

Yes, the Justice Department needs to investigate security breaches, but it needs to do so with discretion and respect for the Constitution. The government should not have carte blanche — under the guise of “national security” — to do whatever it thinks it needs to do to pursue leaks.

Fallout from the Watergate days led to guidelines for the Justice Department to inform news organizations about searches for phone records — but those guidelines were ignored in this case.

Balancing the media’s watchdog role with the government’s national security concerns has never been an easy task. Blind trust that the government always knows best when keeping secrets is a recipe for disaster, but on the other hand, the media has a responsibility to take seriously the role of good citizen and not sabotage the nation’s vital interests just in order to get a “scoop” or better ratings. We live in a dangerous world, and the media should not put people’s lives or safety in jeopardy and then hide behind the First Amendment.

Nonetheless, in a time where government officials at many levels seem more and more inclined to do business in secret, those who leak information in many cases are performing a public service. Government needs more openness, not less, and efforts to hound those who try to shine a light on what the government does are not welcome.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.