New Zealand is denying a report that the United States helped it to spy on a journalist.
How many journalists do you think the United States government is spying on? How is the United States government examining the communications of American journalists? When we used to live in the United State of America, a country of, by and for the people, that wouldn't have been allowed. And if discovered, the press would have been outraged. But in the post Cheney America where the rights provided by the Constitution no longer matter; following the law no longer matters. This is a country that allows torture, allows rendition, allows government by secrecy. NOW, to find out what is happening in America you have to read a British newspaper, the Guardian.
I know creationists and a fairly sizable segment of the Congress does not allow this, but for this exercise let's just try to use logic. We have an administration more concerned with leaks than ever before. Often, leakers provide information to reporters. It's not hard to pinpoint the reporters who are actually reporters instead of cheerleaders when it comes to national security. If you're an agency like the NSA wanting to know absolutely everything about who is saying what and you don't have to worry about ever being found out because everything you do is classified and is approved by a secret court on rulings that can never be reviewed in public, what would happen?
Would the NSA spy on journalists? Of course.
Who would the NSA be examining? Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian? Of course. Are journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post and NBC and CBS and ABC concerned with the NSA spying on journalists? Excuse me, let me rephrase the question. Are the human microphone stands at the New York Times and Washington Post and NBC and CBS and ABC concerned about the government spying on journalists, the Washington reporters who appear to be more outraged with Snowden telling the truth than with the director of national intelligence James Clapper lying to Congress?
To find out, go to the respective news sites and examine the stories examining that question. Examine the questions they've asked of the NSA and the Obama Administration on this issue. Examine the FOIA requests submitted (by the way, a FOIA request is worthless because national security is an exemption and in the current world everything the government wants to do that violates the law is simply a matter of national security and the American press doesn't object).
When journalism fails, bad things happen.
###
How many journalists do you think the United States government is spying on? How is the United States government examining the communications of American journalists? When we used to live in the United State of America, a country of, by and for the people, that wouldn't have been allowed. And if discovered, the press would have been outraged. But in the post Cheney America where the rights provided by the Constitution no longer matter; following the law no longer matters. This is a country that allows torture, allows rendition, allows government by secrecy. NOW, to find out what is happening in America you have to read a British newspaper, the Guardian.
I know creationists and a fairly sizable segment of the Congress does not allow this, but for this exercise let's just try to use logic. We have an administration more concerned with leaks than ever before. Often, leakers provide information to reporters. It's not hard to pinpoint the reporters who are actually reporters instead of cheerleaders when it comes to national security. If you're an agency like the NSA wanting to know absolutely everything about who is saying what and you don't have to worry about ever being found out because everything you do is classified and is approved by a secret court on rulings that can never be reviewed in public, what would happen?
Would the NSA spy on journalists? Of course.
Who would the NSA be examining? Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian? Of course. Are journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post and NBC and CBS and ABC concerned with the NSA spying on journalists? Excuse me, let me rephrase the question. Are the human microphone stands at the New York Times and Washington Post and NBC and CBS and ABC concerned about the government spying on journalists, the Washington reporters who appear to be more outraged with Snowden telling the truth than with the director of national intelligence James Clapper lying to Congress?
To find out, go to the respective news sites and examine the stories examining that question. Examine the questions they've asked of the NSA and the Obama Administration on this issue. Examine the FOIA requests submitted (by the way, a FOIA request is worthless because national security is an exemption and in the current world everything the government wants to do that violates the law is simply a matter of national security and the American press doesn't object).
When journalism fails, bad things happen.
###
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