Why the Silence on Tice's Revelations?
Eric Alterman and George Zornick ask a very good question. Why hasn’t the press–aside from MSNBC–covered Russell Tice’s revelations?
Neither Tice nor his charges were discussed in the Times, either in print or online. This was standard across much of the mainstream media—The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Associated Press have all remained completely silent about Tice’s allegations. And in one of his many, many “legacy” interviews, Bush told Fox’s Brett Baier in December that they were simply “listening to a phone call from a known terrorist.” He was not challenged on this point during that interview, nor any other of which we are aware.
Of course, this is hardly the first time that the mainstream media has looked the other way toward NSA spying. The NSA’s surveillance of U.N. diplomats in New York before the invasion of Iraq didn’t get much mainstream attention when the story broke (in Britain), nor since. But one might imagine that the direct spying on journalists themselves would excite more attention, particularly given the self-interested aspects of the question and the constitutional complications it raises. Tice’s tantalizing tip was mentioned again on Rachel Maddow’s show, as well on Chris Matthews’, and Michael Calderone blogged about it on the Politico. But that’s it.
Clearly something deeply disturbing lurks beneath these revelations, and with Bush gone from office, it’s hard to understand just what is preventing journalists from seeking the truth about this program more energetically. The only thing they have to fear is fear itself.
Fear itself. Or, perhaps, fear that whatever got collected from them through the program will be used against them.
I keep thinking about the first journalist whose call records BushCo collected: John Solomon, back in spring 2001. Since the time when the Bush Administration subpoenaed Solomon’s phone records–and didn’t tell him until several months later–Solomon has been very credulous of right wing talking points, even while proclaiming his freedom from all bias. Now he heads up the news at that noted propaganda organ, the Moonie Times. Sure, maybe Solomon would have followed that same trajectory anyway.
But I do wonder whether the process of sweeping up journalists’ phone records is just the first step in acquiring some very complacent journalists?
And Tice offered his services to the Obama administration.
Sidney Blumenthal wrote about the alleged spying on Colin Powell
http://dir.salon.com/story/opi…..s_revenge/
“The Bolton confirmation hearings have revealed his constant efforts to undermine Powell on Iran and Iraq, Syria, and North Korea. They have also exposed a most curious incident that has triggered the administration’s stonewall reflex. The Foreign Relations Committee discovered that Bolton made a highly unusual request and gained access to 10 intercepts by the National Security Agency, which monitors worldwide communications, of conversations involving past and present government officials. Whose conversations did Bolton secretly secure and why?
Staff members on the committee believe that Bolton was likely spying on Powell, his senior advisors, and other officials reporting to the secretary of state on diplomatic initiatives that Bolton opposed. If so, it is also possible that Bolton was sharing this top-secret information with his neoconservative allies in the Pentagon and the vice president’s office, with whom he was in daily contact and well known to be working in league against Powell. If the intercepts are ever released, they may disclose whether Bolton was a key figure in a counterintelligence operation run inside the Bush administration against the secretary of state, resembling the hunted character played by Will Smith in “Enemy of the State.” Both Republican and Democratic senators have demanded that the State Department, which holds the NSA intercepts, turn them over to the committee. But Rice so far has refused. What is she hiding by her coverup?”
Well, as a first jumping off point for why people (including Powell, and also journalists) might have been spied on, one place to review is EW’s Ghorbanifar Timeline**:
Another knot in this tangle of weeds is this bizarre gem from last summer, in which the GOP House leadership collectively walked out on a meeting with (just resigned DNI Director Mike McConnell): http://www.politico.com/blogs/…..nnell.html
And if all that weren’t strange enough, I note that in this era of instant global communication, my Google search on “news + DNI McConnell” turned up the following:
545 articles isn’t all that many for such momentus news. And I noted with some amusement that the first link was to a Chinese (English language) source. So maybe the Chinese are paying more attention to these things than we are…?
So maybe the headline should be: “Chinese, Russians, Indians, Israeli’s, and Pakistani’s all following resignation of US DNI Director and Tice revelations; Americans, however, remain ignorant”. Too many words for a headline, no doubt.
===============
** EW, the link from the sidebar is incorrect and only turns up a 404 error. This link came from doing a search on your site for: “Ghorbanifar”.
I’m skeptical of this. They can all be blackmailed with phone records, and even after the Bush administration is gone? Or are you talking something other than blackmail? Maybe its enough that corporate news organizations aren’t willing to piss off big telcoms, or further tilt the field in favor of Democrats.
and they keep losing customers
big news organizations are often OWNED by the telecoms!
i’m actually wondering if there is not only fear of what was discovered through those taps for blackmail purposes (which itself reminds me of that little novel from early on in this admin, the librarian, which was based on the power accrued from clandestine info gathering and the blackmail potential run amuck), but fear of their own complicity in the whole thing. true, the times put the story out there, but it waited to do so in a way that was helpful to the admin, and it got spanked in a huge way (they’re still in the courts on this, aren’t they?).
man, these guys have just really pushed the knowledge is power thing to the hilt.
how special interest groups spin and route that spin through our MSM has been troubling for a very long time
well, i suppose that’s just going to happen in any case, at some level. most especially with the media ownership so centralized.
however, when the special interest group is our own government, it really flips the whole ‘free press’ model on its head.
My point was that not everyone, or even most people, can be blackmailed, particularly not boring journalists (politicians — another story). So I’m not clear on what else they might have on journalists that would give them leverage over them. The editors and owners are much easier to influence.
good point.
It occurs to me that Bush’s head of the NSA is still the head of the NSA. That might account for the journalists’ continued silence.
Sounds like unless the Obama administration acts quickly we might have a J. Edgar Hoover in the making. A guy who controls government because he knows the private secrets. And is willing to blackmail.
Exactly! Have thought that the possibility of blackmail has been the hammer that the Bushies use — both Dubya and his dad.
Who better to coordinate those efforts than Rove? 43 knew what he was getting when he hired that young man.
we have ways to shut you up
Makes you wonder who or what they are looking for?
Power.
not so hard: leverage. blackmailable info.
to paraphrase lbj, they want as many balls in their pockets as they can squeeze.
bingo
Hint #1:
NBC studios housed in Rockefeller Center, same building as “Rockefeller Family Offices” – at Room 5600, 30 Rockefeller Plaza
an law makers and politicians, for instance pelosi
do you really think pelosi has been so complacent?
i know she has not been too aggressive on matters that i would have preferred her to be, but i don’t see her as complacent.
she has said we ‘don’t know the half of it.’ which suggests to me there is a great huge monster lurking underneath all this. but we all know that.
what i see in pelosi, and in many others, is a recognition of what these power-mongers are capable of. they think of the anthrax letters to leahy and daschle, and wellstone’s (un)timely death, and cheney’s threats and so on. i know their roles require standing up to all this, but if you fear for you family’s welfare in such an atmosphere, what do you do?
i think they’ve played things very cautiously until they could see evidence that the beast is losing power and support. it seems to me to be happening much faster than i would have expected – pelosi has turned from ‘impeachment is off the table’ to supporting investigations and prosecutions.
i know this may seem cowardly and late acts that should have been done when the heat was on. but how effective would that have been in achieving the goal? nada. now they can get somewhere, and somewhere that it all might stick and have public support.
to everything there is a season, and sometimes you have to wait to get the best shot.
that lllphd is the last thing we needed done, we needed them taken out of power while they still had it
barn door closed too late comes to mind
i agree, in a perfect world. but i keep saying this – i have no idea how i would have behaved in that climate of post 9/11, with bush’s ratings at ceiling, the media spewing gunsmoke, and the entire populace absolutely rabid with vindictive and paranoid delusion. you can stand up in the face of that, and risk your career and maybe even your life and/or those of your family, and it holds the very real possibility of actually not bringing about what needs to happen.
i count myself as a highly principled individual. in fact, my history shows just how much what i heard iglesias say the other day holds true: i believed i would be punished for doing the wrong thing, but i never dreamed i’d be punished for doing the right thing. i would have done it no other way than i did (and twice, mind you), but the price has been enormous, and my responsibilities and public exposure are NOTHING compared to what those in congress have faced.
don’t get me wrong; pelosi and reid have done several things that have ticked me off, no doubt about it. but as for what went down during the darkest of our days, i’m just not willing to judge too harshly. at least until i have more info.
as for current things, i’m also still holding out for a grander strategy. i once shared here a scenario to hypothesize about how obama might have weighed the advantages and disadvantages of voting for the fisa/telecom immunity bill. it remains to be proven wrong at this point, but it still strikes me that making these decisions is not always so simple as we here on the sidelines would love to believe.
do tell, please, would love to hear your story
sorry, perris; i didn’t realize when i wrote that how misleading it might be. i should have emphasized that neither situation involved politics on a national government level. however, it did involve ‘politics’ in the ‘everything is political’ sense.
what i did was small time, corporate power bucking the system kind of stuff. had no idea how heavy they can come down on folks who stand up to them.
that was the first one. let’s just say that one left me with a good settlement, but unable to work in that specific field again.
the other one had to do with a professional matter that exposed completely incompetent and power mad individuals who left me in even worse shape than before. as it turns out, it wasn’t just me or this particular group of incompetent power loonies; it’s a problem for many nationwide. really killing the profession. sad to say, defending myself has left me bankrupt and essentially homeless (not as bad as that sounds, really, but almost).
now i was going to say here, see, nothing of interest, how boring. but really this makes my point. the fact is, even in such invisible situations the same principle operates. an enormous reason i did what i did (though it didn’t even occur to me at the time) was that i have no dependent children, no dependent parents, no significant other whose finances would be affected by my situation, and no mortgage. in short, i had nothing to lose.
i can honestly say here i i did not consider those points until a friend pointed them out to me well after i was bankrupt and into my second appeal to the state courts (and again deep in debt to my saint of an atty; i actually love lawyers!). but i can also just as honestly say that i don’t know how i might have handled the same situation had those points been otherwise, had i so much to lose.
i’d like to think i’d have done the same thing, but it is really not so easy. and we’re just talking really small potatoes here, nothing to compare with what members of congress were looking at. i know that there were some who stood up – feingold and kucinich and so on – but those were very few, and we don’t know what prices they paid, or didn’t have to (feingold has had 2 divorces, if memory serves, and kucinich was not even married at the time; and wellstone is dead).
it’s silly to speculate on some level, but you get the idea. i hope. i’m all for holding these reps’ feets to the fires; i’ll never stop doing that. but i also don’t want to forget that they’re human and we really can’t presume to know how we’d act unless we’re in their shoes.
i’ll add this little reflection on it all. one thing i’ve learned is how little i can live on. though i knew that – always lived modestly – but now it’s taken on a different meaning. with the economy tanking, i’m reminded of my position on how this thing could turn around. namely, the problem is too much corporate power. how is that corporate power fed? by consumption. the solution? we have to stop consuming. i mean, really. we have to tuck in and really really reduce our footprints in every way. it’s not just imperative for recovering real freedom, it’s imperative for the planet.
i know this may sound far afield, but we do get so wrapped up in all this political minutiae when there is a very serious matter coming down with all fours on us. and it seems to me, if we trace the bulk of our biggest problems right now – the economy, the loss of our free press, the loss of election integrity, our civil rights, our control of our government, the loss of our planet’s stability – we can pretty much trace them to that corporate power/consumer relationship. we have the power to break it, if we choose.
gosh, really out there. sorry; didn’t intend. feel free to ignore all that stuff. my bottom line to this issue at hand is that it’s not entirely fair to assume all decisions have clear cut right and wrong dimensions, free of complexities. i feel it important to offer members of congress who have lived through the past 8 years some recognition that they’re human. not saints, human. obama, too.
Hint #2:
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when
everything the American public believes is false.”
– William Casey, CIA Director (from first staff meeting, 1981)
Hints #3 & 4:
Media ownership study ordered destroyed
Sept 14, 2006
‘Every last piece’ destroyed
Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed. “The whole project was just stopped – end of discussion,” he said. Candeub was a lawyer in the FCC’s Media Bureau at the time the report was written and communicated frequently with its authors, he said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14836500/
“You can’t tell any more the difference between what’s propaganda and what’s news.”
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein
15 August, 2006
I just think it doesn’t take all that much for some folks to “not make trouble” if they think that they could be adversely affected by stirring up trouble. All that needs to be planted is the seed. Just a little fear in this climate of high unemployment, teflon republicans, a total disrespect for the constitution and rule of law, and it would be easy to foster that fear.
I think if all the variables are taken into account, a chilling effect would occur simply by “knowing” they can listen.
My husband is paranoid. (certifiably) He is constantly warning me about writing my opinions on the internet. He is certain that they can hear us in our home, (new technology in the dvd, cable boxes and phones that allows listening without it being turned on). He is sure I am on some targeted list because of my enjoyment of particular blogs.
I know my husband is a little crazy, but he has a job, is a good dad, and a functioning citizen. It’s not that hard to imagine that the news media might have reason to feel vulnerable in light of “Plame”, a blatant disrespect for the constitution, and teflon republicans.
I mean, do journalist worry that they could be labeled as subversive just for telling the truth, or be labeled an enemy combatant? All it takes is a little bit of fear for folks to “avoid”. It could be fear of losing the job, not being promoted, being targeted for listening in, whatever. But it could have the effect of keeping the lid on things.
I just don’t think it takes as much as most people think. And I think that any threat that can be internalized is very effective.
I recall listening to Seymour Hersh saying in an interview some time ago that he was quite sure that his communications were bugged and had been for years. His response was that he ignored the surveillance. He didn’t alter his processes for writing, filing, etc. But I have noticed that he seems to go to his sources personally for conversations.
He also submits all of his writing to independent fact-checking by his by his magazine.
But he has a magazine that does publish his work.
It seems that even if a reporter has the courage to research and write, it takes someone else with courage to publish.
Hint #4
At a discussion about the implementation of the Trusted Internet Connection project (which would monitor all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic) for Federal agencies by the Department of Homeland Security, a DHS employee responded to concerns from Federal employees regarding issues of privacy that “DHS already has taps on monitors on the Internet.”
Ba dum bum.
hm. source?
Senior DHS official working on the project. I was in the room. Was a briefing for Federal agencies implementing TIC.
Maybe we’d like to give up our sinecure and speak out about nefarious doings of Chertoff et al?
holy crap. that’s…scary. can’t help but be curious about your response. but completely understand if you beg off on that one.
thanks for sharing. sheez. now you’ve really got my attention.
so, aren’t you a bit nervous about these comments?
The torrent of profanity that came out of my mouth as soon as my colleague and I were out of the building was absolutely breathtaking.
The TIC is part of the larger Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). Nothing I heard was inconsistent with what’s been published in Wired or in the Federation of American Scientists blog and website. In conversations with other Federal security and network IT professionals, there’s a common acknowledgment that DHS has strong-armed ISPs and telcos to provide them access for surveillance; the issue is DHS’ ability to process the information they capture.
And yes, there is an open resistance amongst Federal IT professionals to simply accepting the whim of OMB, GSA, and DHS. I’ve been consistent in refusing to accept “Terror threat” and “Security Threat” as justification for the violation of laws protecting privacy and personal information.
my. god. i wish i could say i’m surprised, but why am i so shocked?
i suppose to have someone just spell it out like this.
what can we do? how can we help reverse this? don’t they need fisa approval? or some kind of sanction after the fact? how can those officials justify doing that when it is so clearly a violation of the 4th??? what happens to folks who refuse? so you think they’ll gain some momentum now that the admin has shifted?
loads of questions; apologies. but seriously, how can we help?
and have i reminded you in this comment how much i appreciate what you’re doing?
James Reisen talked about Tice on Rachel or Keith. His theory was that they were trying to figure out who the government whistle blowers were, not blackmail the journalists.
I was also wondering why the WaPo and the NYT have ignored the issue. I always have this hope that they are just working to confirm it with their own reporting.
Well, how about having Tice make the rounds on blogs? Maybe then the MSM might awaken just a leeeeetle bit. A “Tice Truth Tour.”
EW,
Why don’t you have him come and talk about your timeline. Call it a “Truth Salon.”
ot
Need a laugh
Stephen Colbert
“the Audacity of nope”
http://videocafecrooksandliars…..ty-of-nope
The audacity of nope
Colbert
http://videocafe.crooksandliar…..ty-of-nope
One reason to ignore FISA and collect “all” data was so that they could hide their targets. I am not sure they gave two farts about “terrorism” they wanted to zap those “liberal” journalists and all the politicians etc. they could. Them bushies are a dangerous lot, yessir.
Watergate on steroids.
That seems to be the ticket here. collect everything and then do post mortem searches through the stuff you got ( Elliot Spitzer anyone). Who can run the searches…KKKarl and company of course, but who else. It used to be follow the money, now its follow the access.
lllphd — On a same note Pelosi is owned by the Bushies. The only thing she will talk about is the USA firings scandal. Anything else is off limits cause they got her, totally. I would think Reid as well.
I don’t think that they have anything on all of them just the select few they really need. In both parties, the press, the bureaucracy and the courts.
Perhaps it’s not only that some journalists are afraid that there is information that can be used against them..as that they are trying to protect their sources.
Someone wanting to blackmail wouldn’t have to threaten each individual journalist. All they have to do is threaten to reveal ALL SOURCES of any media outlet that focuses on Tice’s revelations.
Fear of retaliation is a real motivator.
Ah yes, but if journalists stand up against threats, perhaps the “release” of information from blackmailers will “tip” a hand on missing email or the extent of info gathering on citizens, so the act of blackmail can “bite” the blackmailer in the end as evidence in violating the Constitution..
i’d be happy if journalists merely adhered to rules of good journalism.
i.e., the whole ’source revelation’ thing has never quite impressed me, at least as it is debated.
imho, a good journalist (hersh is the quintessential hero here) has a simple rule: i will NEVER reveal a source unless that source is shown to be using me to advance propoganda or and illegal agenda. pretty simple.
a second rule would me, again imho: any source that sits in an official capacity of government better not use me to advance the same. whistleblowing is all fine and good, but using me as a mouthpiece to maintain power is flatly orthogonal to the very spirit of the first amendment, and therefore not just unamerican but treasonous. and i as a journalist will expose that.
why is that so hard? because the ‘free’ press is hardly free anymore, but bought and paid for. big business, as is government. which is why we lurch so close to annihilation by internal fascism.
yeah, but if they play the game that very PUBLIC way, they undermine the whole operation. the point of their power is that the public be kept unaware of the truth of what they’re doing.
or am i missing something? quite likely….
Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man. 1964.
hoping one of FDL’s heavy hitters does an overview of Obama’s first week in office. Closure of Gitmo,(kind of) Lilly Ledbetter fair payment act etc
Don’t forget the worse-than-pointless predator strikes in Pakistan (only 72 hours in!) that killed 18 people including several children — and one of he targets was a government-supporing tribal leader.
Heckuva job. But now he’s a made man, which apparently is a requirement to be considered ’serious’.
I wonder if the Bush administration somehow managed to quietly smear Tice so that the major news orgs won’t touch the controversy.
That begins to answer my question. I start to think of what they did to Scott Ritter.
And Plame
“nuts and sluts” – that’s what national security whistleblowers have termed the retaliation tactics
Absolutely. With Tice it was his initial request for follow up action on someone he thought was a spy. In fact, the way the implied narrative goes is that is the first action and everything followed from the “spurned investigation”.
The Bushies have already ‘put it out there’ that Tice has some psychiatric disorders. I think it’s in his personnel file as contributing to his dismissal from NSA service. Once that seed is planted, a false second sheet could be printed up on similar letterhead, but alleging shocking (and false) disorders.
Anyone could do it with a copier and some scotch tape. Why would Cheney trouble the agencies with the job, when he could piece it together after hours in his mailroom? A quick flight to NYC, drop in at the publisher’s office. Then wave it around in Punch Sulzberger’s office with the door closed. Nothing on the record, no evidence, not even a claim that it’s authentic. Almost the perfect crime.
For instance, falsely claiming that Tice told his therapist that he fantasizes about beastiality. Or that he was arrested as a Peeping Tom outside an exclusive Girls’ School years ago, case never pressed at the school’s request for privacy and so no records kept. This second sheet never has to see the light of day twice, but if the NYT ever thinks about covering Tice’s charges, they will think twice about publishing. No editor wants to be the next Dan Rather / CBS, embarrassed in front of the entire nation that they listened to anything Tice ever said. Almost the perfect crime.
I haven’t read that section of my bible recently, but didn’t someone mention ‘beating the goats to scare the sheep’? Dan Rather as the goat, NYT as sheep. Am I surprised that it works out this way? And that we’ll never know the truth?
This false info put into medical records is one huge reason why I don’t want to see our medical records online. Anything and everything can possibly be hacked and changed and we wouldn’t even know it. Why is Obama wanting to do this (in the Recovery package) when it was a bush agenda?
and then there’s this from Juan Cole
The odd collection of con men, carpetbaggers, mercenaries, court jesters, and professional propagandists that gathered around W. the way pilot fish jostle about a great white shark has now scattered to more obscure reefs. Now, as Meyrav Wurmser admitted, they are thinking about how to make money. They seek perches in the “think tanks” of kooky rich old white men, on the airwaves of corporate media, in the halls of the more corrupt corners of academia, or on the opinion pages of the wackier capitalist tools
http://www.juancole.com/2009/0…..-made.html
one of those professional propagandists
Laura Myrolie
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…..riting.php
When an individual is proven so wrong about Iraq and WMD’s why in hell are they still in the game writing reports for anyone?
“fear that whatever got collected from them through the program will be used against them.”
TIA… Totally Intimidating Asshats
Reporters are just bunch of tools, in it for the ego, for “being on TV”. They just want the job – the MSM types that’s true for sure.
MSM is owned by the same people that owned Bush and company – They’ve lost thier administration, but their message machine is still alive and well.
i for one would appreciate it if you did not lump all reporters into one ‘asshole’ bin. there are just too many exceptions to that generalization. hersh comes to mind, palast, jane mayer, to quickly name a few.
the ones who succumb to the money media machine are bad; the ones who don’t are not. and as has been pointed out here, it’s most often the editors and owners who make those calls.
agreed Hersh at the top of the list. If only the rest would follow that man’s lead
There are precious few that don’t belong in the ass hole bin. And if you work for a tool, answer to a tool, and cower to the tool – you’re a tool.
MSM is probably the biggest fucking problem in the country bar none. It has been the chief facilitator of all that’s been fucked up in the last 8 years.
If the blogs and the web hadn’t come into its own, God knoww where we would be.
The 4th estate is broken. MSM is owned by the same corps that support “the vast right wing conspiracy” That was my point – you need not defend the few non-tool reporters. They know who they are.
If we’re really going to win this country back, we’ve got to have some reform in media. But then we could get into a whole cultural discussion beginning with the NILF problem. But what would be the point?
Fix media, fix the country. Big job, I hope someone does it.
i agree that the media corps are the fundamental problem. if we don’t have a free press, we can never be informed about the crimes and corruption. ultimately ben franklin’s point, i suppose.
but it’s way harsh to assume that just because you have a job in order to eat and keep a roof over your head you’re a tool because you’re not a hero. the real culprits are the ones who call the shots, but big guns. aim there, not at the little guys.
of course, some of those little guys are wanton, eager tools, and sure, they should be scorned. but there are numbers of working reporters, just as there are numbers of working soldiers and attorneys and agents and so on who really try not to go along to get along. it’s hard. if it were easy, the heroes wouldn’t be heroes.
i’ll bet scory could weigh in here with some very enlightening insights.
I was the subject of COINTELPRO wiretap and mail cover for about two years in the early 1970’s, along with several Army friends of mine who were involved in anti-war activities and other questioning of military and government policy. We finally ended up taking the Sy Hersh approach. We weren’t doing anything illegal. We weren’t saying anything that wasn’t protected by the First Amendment. We weren’t advocating violent overthrow of the U.S. Government. So we ignored it. Eventually, it went away. It sure was interesting, after years of FOIA haggling, to finally get our “intel files.” It was exactly as we suspected. They monitored us at great expense to the government and produced exactly nothing that was actionable.
Lucian K. Truscott IV
wow. thanks for that story, for your service, and for protesting the war. many thanks.
Good for you!! Three cheers for LucianKTruscott.
We need more like you.
Well, and my point is that the rules of journalism have changed. Who gets promoted and why? I think that simply wanting to advance the career might mean that you don’t pounce on a story. Instead of the old days when you did. It seems to me that the news organizations (but for the one carved out as the anti-fox) fight over being non controversial. They don’t go for the important story, but for not stepping on toes. That’s because they are owned and operated by the big money in this country. When Bush allowed super sized organizations to buy the smaller companies it changed the rules of journalism. I don’t think it takes black mail today…it just takes lush rimbaugh to make you into the anti-christ. No one cares if it’s true or has validity.
Olbermann fought back when no one else was. It worked for the ratings and it was only the ratings that saved his ass. It wasn’t the story, or the truth.
Nope the rules of changed and made journalists far more vulnerable. Remembering Dan Rather. Just a little controversy can kill you, now.
and remembering donahue. yup; big business has ruined the very notion of a free press here. hope to god obama moves to support fcc changes and do a load of trust busting of these mega telecoms.
I would call BS on the press..they mostly are BS artists. However Bush trumps all by invoking blackmail.
Does Michael Steele make Rush Limbaugh want to bend over or backwards and grab his ankles?
-GSD
The lack of reporting on something like this that affects the constitution and their supposed job, make assholes of reporters. Makes them stooges on the take. Irrelevant boot lickers. Any disagreement?
way off topic: Does any one else think huffingtonpost huge headlines and images are ridiculous for an Internet format?
You have a question about tabloid blogging?
Does anyone remember the Carl Bernstein piece in Rolling Stone back in 1977 where he stated that the media had been basically infiltrated by intelligence assets who would make sure that another Watergate never happened again? Watergate in the sense that the press would never function as a legitimate organ ever again.
Reagan/Bush carried that into the 80s when their thugs visited newsrooms to complain about reporters who weren’t following the suggestion that criticism of the president and the administration was damaging to the country.
Just ask Bob Parry about being a conscientious reporter. Or ask Gary Webb…ooops, can’t ask Gary, can we? He was hounded so much about his truthful reporting about Iran-contra and connections between the government and drug smuggling that he lost his job and committed suicide.
It would be worthwhile for anyone concerned about what happened to our media to track down a copy of Parry’s “Fooling America” which is an excellent book about how the conventional wisdom gets it wrong while piling on and smothering those voices who get it right.
I don’t think I’ve ever read that, but go to page 6 in the link below [pdf warning]
http://www.disclosureproject.o…..IAMemo.pdf
that is an internal document written by agency people about improving their image through media appearances and contacts. what Bernstein was talking about was the infiltration of the media by people purporting to be journalists who are really working for the agency and in reality producing propaganda to be directed at the American people which is against the law.
The reason Barbara Bush and Poppy hated Phil Agee so much and the reason the law was written to protect the identities of covert operatives is because Agee outed CIA people working in Latin America in his first book and then did the same thing to those working in western Europe in his second book.
The great hater Mrs. Bush specifically named Agee as someone who was pure evil when he wrote his book and it came out in 1975 at the height of the investigations into the agency’s illegal activities.
I have been wondering for years just who wanted to take Nixon out.
Here’s a link to the Bernstein piece:
http://danwismar.com/uploads/B…..0Media.htm
thanks for the reminder, and the link. interestingly, was discussing just that point about spooks in the media this morning. carl should know; word has it his buddy bob was/is a spook. i’d bet good money judyjudyjudy is. this is why the nets are so scary to them.
tage: Journalist sex. Blackmail.
Sally Quinn Re: Lewinsky/Clinton
“Of all those interviewed, not one mentioned sex or adultery as a matter of concern. “Sex,” says Gergen, “is acceptable as long as it’s discreet.” As Wilkins puts it, with a chuckle, “God knows, most people in Washington have led robust sexual lives.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..110298.htm
Keep in mind the heart of the AIPAC prosecution is that RECEIVING classified info, as well as leaking it, can be prosecuted and the DIst Ct ruling specifically used the Pentagon papers as an example of a situation where the journalists/paper receiving the info could be prosecuted under the prosecution’s theory – adopted by the court.
Add in Obama’s DNI pick, Blair, saying he wants nothing more than to go after leakers and Obama handing him an apparatus where he can surveil pretty much all American communications, off the books and with just some AG collusion (or not even that) and I’d say your journalists will stay pretty complacent.
Yeah they sure as hell never report anything about the Aipac Rosen Weissman espionage investigation and 5 time delayed trial. Never quite sure who the MSM is afraid of or working for. Certainly not the American people
Selected case files for the Aipac trial
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/aipac/index.html
Never hear the so called progressive journalist Keith Olberman or Rachel Maddow talk about this investigation
wow, good points.
maybe someone should tweek rachel’s ear on this. she strikes me as bold enough to do it.
I still wonder if it’s not a combination of having dirt on certain people, and having lists of the sources that will be leaked, probably anonymously, if the media focuses too much on Tice and the information.
Rest assured, they already have lists of sources, and most likely copies of email, recordings of telephone conversations, possibly even recordings from planted bugs, if they were really worried about a certain journalist or two.
And how many media outlets have at least one journalist with at least one source who could be put in danger (personally, or via family) if some of what they’ve said is revealed.
I keep thinking of the contract MZM had with the White House, to provide “furniture and computers” for Dick Cheney. Maybe they provided a few chairs and tables for Congress too…with a nice extra “feature” (aka “bug”)?
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re NOT out to get you.
Good point. Of course, this assumes that Congressmen say anything in private that is significantly more interesting than what they say to the TV cameras.
At the same time we still do not have key info on what is happening with the new administration. Tice gives us a heads up at perceived great risk to himself and his future. Mind you he could still be a plant. It comes to mind a question or a series regarding what is actually happening as we speak, who is in charge of the ongoing program or programs, are they Bush cronies, who is in charge, at least we should be finding out if this spying network is still feeding the monster or has Obama and Company decided that it is their turn to play with the toys for all or some of the same reasons. Wiretapping elected officials and key department heads IMO, should be looked upon as a direct threat to our national security. The financial industry should also be considered in our discussions. The implications are almost endless. EW has pointed out an issue that is very disturbing. Tice spills the beans, offers his info to the Obama people and it seems there is no great interest. Not even a peep. I always believed Plame was outed for the one purpose and that was to show the country this is what happens to those who rock the boat via Cheney and Rove.
if i were obama and heard what tice is saying, i think i’d make a point NOT to make a peep about what i’m doing about it.
making a peep is the domain of the press. and it is interesting they’re so silent. again; all those companies (so intertwined) were complicit and they knew it was a crime. hot potato.
as for plame, i think you’re right, but i also think more specifically cheney was just as eager to get her off the joint task force on iraq as he was to find a way to shut wilson up, or anyone else who crossed him. the dick did not like what the spooks were telling him.
Tangent thought, out of curiosity..I wonder if Obama has had anyone do a thorough sweep for bugs? I wouldn’t put it past these miscreants to still be listening in.
Bastids.
I’ve commented on that very issue too. I was wearing my new Aretha style tinfoil hat when I said it, but I still think it!!!
I’d assume a thorough sweep was part of the [ahem] redecorating in the White House, perhaps especially in the family quarters.
At least my future biographers will now have an easier time finding information about me.
Media have been infiltrated, all right, but it’s much more open than being “infiltrated by intelligence assets”.
The people who run Big Media socialize with, and are intermarried with, the Republican establishment. They don’t want to see the misdeeds of the Bush years exposed.
The fallacy of conspiracy theories does not lie in the supposed fact that conspiracies do not exist–history is full of them. The fallacy is the belief that conspiracies work. Most come apart quickly, as soon as they encounter the unforeseen. Bush and company started as a conspiracy of drink-sodden, gibbering idiots. Their subsequent descent into ever more absolute viciousness was, of course, appalling. But it did nothing to make them more capable or competent conspirators than most–quite the contrary. So I doubt that they know any more about journalists or the rest of us than they ever did, and I very much doubt that they have any real blackmail leverage other than what they have on each other. But that is not what makes them so dangerous.
The mere posibility of a conspiracy of this scale has an effect, given that nearly everyone has something they’d like to keep private and given the modern media’s peculiarly narcississtic obsession with image, reputation, and prestige. nomolos’ insight above (that Bushco sought to “collect ‘all’ data … so that they could hide their targets”) can thus be taken one step further: secrecy can hide the fact that there are NO targets. Secrecy can hide the fact that an entire national security apparatus is a fraud, a Potemkin village of pointless wiretaps and intercepts that reveal nothing.
This is what really makes a secret program of this kind so dangerous. If no one knows that there are no targets, no one can know that his secrets–real or imagined–are safe. If you are predisposed to feel guilty about something–and most are, other than sociopaths–and if you have a more than usually public position, then even the whisper of secret spying is intimidating. A White House agent doesn’t have to approach you, because you are anticipating that approach. “They” don’t have to blackmail you, because you do it for them.
I’m reminded of Wodehouse’s character Bertie Wooster, who masters the violent, physically intimidating Spode by whispering “I know your secret”. Wooster hasn’t a clue about the secret (at least at first) nor about much of anything else, really (his aunt’s wonder if he’s been dropped on his head and wonder about having him put in some sort of home). Yet the enormously powerful Spode, the self-appointed dictator of the Black Shorts, jumps to the conclusion that Wooster KNOWS ALL and absolutely grovels before him.
As several commentators here have noted, the strong characters among us (and the real sociopaths) will laugh off the “I know your secret” ploy and ignore the spies. Others will enjoy messing with the apparatus by adding cryptic messages to all their emails to see what happens. But some, at least, will indeed be intimidated, and that is intolerable, poisonous for democracy. The Framers of the Constitution saw this perfectly clearly and wrote the document accordingly. That’s where the argument should end.
I said a week ago at a Raw Story post that the MSM was going to ignore this. So much for them being liberally biased. They were complicit with Bush and should all be sent back to journalism school to learn how journalists are supposed to be independent, neutral, skeptical viewers of politicians and their politics! I wish I couldn’t say I told you so.
the sargeant-at-arms of the US house-o-reps ought to be dispatched to detain and place into custody mr rove and mz miers .. and mr bush as well if he continues to obstruct the committeee’s work ..
and hey .. isn’t it correct that impeachemnt isn’t just limited to an office-holder during their term of duty .. what i’ve read elsewhere is that officials may be impeached after-the-fact of their service as well .. such after-the-fact impeachments serve to bar the impeached official from evah serving in a gov’t position again .. as well as denying them benefits or even pension monies .. medical bennies … etc deriving from the office/position the impeachment pertained covered ..
but not to worry .. the seemingly post-partisan cajones-free all-new democratic majorities [as thus far demonstrated] are in no danger of actually punishing any former member of the bushco scofflaw regime ..
i feel like i’m watching a new updated version of the wizard of Oz .. with the house .. the senate and obama playing the roles of the straw man .. the tin man and the cowardly lion ..
sorry …
I just finished the book “The Traveler” by John Twelve Oaks, not the authors real name because s/he is anonymous. It really makes one look at our world of high tech (spying) camera’s on every corner and in every public building, scanning our faces at sporting events, in airports, etc in a different light. I am looking forward to his 2nd book “The Dark River” and his 3rd in the trilogy will be out later this year. It’s a book you’ll want to discuss with some one after you’ve read it. An easy quick read.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/b…..eler_x.htm
Here’s a quote from the book posted on wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Twelve_Hawks
Obama’s President. Great.
Until the silenced would-be whistle-blowers receive some sign they won’t be targets of retribution, we’re at a stalemate until someone claims the courage to speak up.
And under the technical powers the NSA has had, that could be daunting.
I know it’s nice to think “I have nothing to hide”. But have you ever done a web search for “antidepressants”? Or anything even vaguely porn-like? Even if it was purely innocent? Perhaps you read something in the NY Times Arts section and wondered “how common are artistic dance or theater performances in the nude”? Did you ever read an online personals section, just out of curiosity? Even though you have a spouse?
Are all your taxes legit? Are you sure? Would you like an audit? The IRS might not start one, but what if the NSA told them you were researching tax shelters online? Sure, you’re a business journalist, but that’s probably just a cover for something you must have done.
Who was it who said “give me six sentences by an honest man and I can find something in there to hang him”? Now make that 6,000 web searches.
Yes, I’m pretty sure it goes that deep.
Lots of spying was going on in shrub Wh. What ever happened to these 2? Interesting how the reporter calls hacking “snooping”. Mitnick (below) said these 2 shold go to jail like he had to.
http://www.democraticundergrou…..322#400328
i’d forgotten about this. yet another way the repugs likely used the skills of michael collin.
Why are foreign born people allowed to be involved with our gov and newspapers? Miranda, murdoch… They have no attachment to our Constitution.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=…..#038;gl=us
J. Edgar Hoover wielded a lot of power by getting “the goods” on people in positions of power including the press. So, what the Bush administration did regarding the NSA is not novel, just much higher technology.