USA Today pulls back on NSA story
p2p news / p2pnet: USA Today can’t prove, “key elements of a blockbuster May 11 story in which it reported that several telecommunications companies were handing over customer phone records to the National Security Agency,” says another newspaper.
America’s National Security Agency secretly built the world’s largest database of phone records using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, said USA Today in May, stating, “The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans – most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime.”
But yesterday, “in an lengthy article and accompanying ‘note to our readers,’ the nation’s largest-circulation newspaper said it could not confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA, which is charged with intercepting and analyzing foreign communications to look for possible threats to U.S. national security,” says The Washington Post, going on:
“The correction illustrates the difficulty of reporting sensitive and often classified government actions, as anonymous sources sometimes backtrack, pursue their own agendas by leaking selective information or say more than they know. News organizations attempt to assemble authoritative stories from multiple sources and agencies, creating plenty of room for potential error.”
USA Today editor Ken Paulson is quoted as saying, “We take every error seriously. This was obviously a big story. . . . All we can do is set the record straight.”
Frank Ahrens and Howard Kurtz, “make a fairly big deal in the Washington Post (and on page A-2) on Saturday that ‘USA Today has acknowledged that it cannot prove key elements of a blockbuster May 11 story in which it reported that several telecommunications companies were handing over customer phone records to the National Security Agency’,” says NewsBusters, adding:
“Ahrens and Kurtz did not recall that Cauley may have been politically motivated to push the story before it was fully baked, considering she was a Dick Gephardt donor.”
In another post, “Leslie Cauley, the USA Today reporter who last week broke’ the news that three major U.S. telecommunications companies were assisting the National Security Agency in building a database to more easily track any communications by potential terrorists, is listed as a donor to former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, according to a search of The Center for Responsive Politics Web site, www.opensecrets.org,” says NewsBusters, continuing:
“A search found a listing for ‘writer and journalist’ Leslie Cauley, indicating she gave $2,000 to Gephardt on June 30, 2003, when Gephardt was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. And that seems not to be her only tie to Democratic politics”.
Her link to a Democratic campaign, “seems likely to further cloud the credibility of her story,” says NewsBusters.
“Two of the three phone companies Cauley fingered, BellSouth and Verizon, have since denied the accuracy of the May 11 USA Today story, and BellSouth yesterday went so far as to demand the newspaper ‘retract the false and unsubstantiated statements’ made by Cauley in her piece.
“There have also been questions about the timing of the story, which was given huge play on USA Today’s front-pages shortly before the former head of the National Security Agency, General Michael Hayden, was due to face confirmation hearings to be the next CIA director, and given the fact that many of the key points of the story were actually reported last December by the New York Times.”
Digg this.
Also See:
world’s largest database – US penetrates citizen homes, May 11, 2006
The Washington Post – VUSA Today Takes Back Some of NSA Phone-Record Report, July 1, 2006
NewsBusters – USA Today Retraction (Almost) Fully Covered by WashPost, July 1, 2006
NewsBusters – USA Today Reporter a Democratic Donor; Phone Company Demands Retraction, May 19, 2006
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July 6th, 2006 at 1:04 am
This goes to PROVE the power the ‘gov’ has over the media!!!!!
This is also the reason the ‘gov’ is trying to shut down bloggers… If it’s not in mainstream media and bloggers put it out anyway, it’s STILL out in the open.
‘Gov’ is what needs to be shut down and started all over again from scratch…STARTING with what our Fore Fathers wrote into law in the FIRST place!
July 6th, 2006 at 5:59 am
That is why it would be good to look at alternative parties such as the Constitution Party http://www.constitutionparty.org or the Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org or other parties such as the Veteran’s Party. People who vote “Republican” or “Democrat” are simply voting more more government, more taxes, more restrictions, more spying, less freedom, and less governmental respect of Constitutional rights.
Those who feel that there is no chance of an alternative party winning and therefor vote for “the lessor of 2 evils” are still voting “Democrat” or “Republican” and bigger, more repressive government. The “lessor of two evils” people only contribute to the problem. It is only by getting rid of the entrenched, corrupt mainstream parties will the people ever have a chance at becoming free again.
If the only candidates who are running are “republicrats,” then the next best option is picking the least advertised candidate and/or voting against the incumbant. If the incumbant polititions are constantly voted out, the people will be effectively flushing the toilet that is called congress, legislature, and councils. By voting for candidates that are the least known it is very possible that these candidates will be the ones owing less favors to the special interests.
We do not need a new President, Congress, and court system, we need a new government, or I should say, the old government that obeyed the Constitution. Unless “We the People” start doing these things, this nation will be destroyed. On July 4th, we celebrated “our independence.” I would be nice if we were a truly an independent nation, but Congress, the court system, and the President as well as those in the past have sold our independence to nations such as Red China as well as the giant multinational corporations. Hopefully, “We the People” will work to restore our independence and freedom by our voting practices as well as using other methods. Unfortunately, I am not optimistic about this happening. We for the most part are too comfortable to even recognize that we are in fact slaves. We for the most part have been brainwashed into believing that we are free.
Those who think that they are free and that the government respects their rights will find out differently when they they go to traffic court, have a dispute with the IRS, police, major corporation, or any other governmental agency. Rarely do these disputes work out in favor of the citizen unless the agency or coporation decides to back off. The police claim that they protect the population from criminals, but who protects the population from the police? The same goes for any other governmental or regulatory agency. I am in favor of abolishing the current government and returning to a Constitutional government by whatever means necessary.
July 6th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Oh they retracted parts of the report… so it must not of happened, un? or isn’t happening…?
I bet a bunch of terrorist just breathed a sigh of relief… not.
July 6th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
If this story is NOT true, then why is the DoJ having such a freaking hissy fit over the EFF’s lawsuit against AT&T to the point of taking the unprecedented action of intervening in a civil lawsuit to which it is NOT a party on the grounds of National Security?
–TG