[antimedia] antimedia: Headline flash! Phone companies cooperate....

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Sat Jul 1 00:50:47 EDT 2006


Posted by antimedia:
Headline flash!  Phone companies cooperate....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1151729445.shtml


   ....with the NSA to invade Americans' privacy. Big splash. Worldwide
   scoop. Media in an uproar. Forty-five days later, [1]whoops! The story
   wasn't accurate. (Media speak for "we lied". Coverage - zero.

     USA Today revealed Friday that a much-debated May 11 story claiming
     that three major telecommunications companies had actively
     cooperated with the National Security Agency to provide domestic
     telephone records was not completely accurate.
     In an editor's note and a related news story, both published today,
     the newspaper stood by its report that the NSA had compiled a
     "massive database of domestic call records," but admitted that
     reports of AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon contracting to provide such
     records were not accurate.
     "Based on its reporting after the May 11 article, USA TODAY has now
     concluded that while the NSA has built a massive domestic calls
     record database involving the domestic call records of
     telecommunications companies, the newspaper cannot confirm that
     BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA to provide bulk
     calling records to that database," the editor's note stated, in
     part. "USA TODAY will continue to report on the contents and scope
     of the database as part of its ongoing coverage of national
     security and domestic surveillance."

   The power of the press is in full display. Splash the lie on page one
   and lead with it on the evening news. Wait 45 days and retract it in a
   note no one will see. Rinse, lather, repeat.
   The fools will never figure it out.

References

   1. http://editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002764881&imw=Y



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