A spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown acknowledged Thursday that he taped a phone conversation with a reporter for The Chronicle this week without disclosing the fact or asking permission – and admitted he has taped conversations with other news reporters.

Meanwhile, another veteran California politics observer, Bill Bradley, says the media got it wrong in speculating that a Bill Clinton-Jerry Brown feud led to Clinton’s endorsement of Newsom:

“Obviously, it’s troubling whenever someone is recording a phone call without your knowledge, particularly a person in that position — of being in the attorney general’s office,” Chronicle Managing Editor Stephen Proctor said.

“Here’s the implication: Reporters now have one hell of a story about a guy who’s running for governor of California,” said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, based in Virginia. “He’s just lit a fire under a real big political thing.”

… “California law says all parties to a conversation must know they are being taped,” she said. “So if one person didn’t (know), it’s a violation of the law, and it doesn’t matter that it’s the AG’s office doing the taping.”