Today's New York Times gives some good coverage to the Spocko vs KSFO Hate Speech Radio issue.
Also, coincidentally, today's NYT reports on the US military & intelligence expanding its scope in gathering financial data on US citizens.
Military Expands Intelligence Role in U.S.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: January 14, 2007
Lichtblau is the very reporter who investigated the NSA story in October 2004, when NYT executive editor Bill Keller and publisher Arthur Sulzberger were hauled in on the carpet of the Oval Office and ordered by President Bush "Do not print that story." Had they printed the story it would have effected the outcome of that 2004 presidential election.
Before they ran the story in December of 2005 again they were hauled in to the Oval Office. Again they were ordered not to print. But this second time they ran it:
Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: December 16, 2005
followed by:
Legal Basis For Spying In U.S. Is Doubted
Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane
January 7, 2006
followed by:
Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping
By SCOTT SHANE and ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, May 13 — In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser argued that the National Security Agency should intercept purely domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages without warrants in the hunt for terrorists, according to two senior intelligence officials.
But N.S.A. lawyers, trained in the agency's strict rules against domestic spying and reluctant to approve any eavesdropping without warrants, insisted that it should be limited to communications into and out of the country, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the debate inside the Bush administration late in 2001.
This is the very story that started the shitstorm within and without the NYT... The bottom line: either the NYT had been treasonous in reporting on a secret spying program, and in doing so had compromised national security, or Bush had committed an impeachable offense.
When is it a crime to report a crime?
Well, when the President commits it, of course.
Bill Keller in Chains
Commentary's case for prosecuting the Times under the Espionage Act.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, March 9, 2006, at 6:57 PM ET
This is when the KSFO Krowd started calling for Keller's execution on charge of treason. This is when they staged Keller's mock execution on air. This is when people from that Krowd thought publishing the address of the NYT exec's homes was a good thing, and this is when the Krowd called for the hunting down of the NYT photojournalists as well. (after an innocuous piece in the NYT travel section about Cheney's summer palace in Maryland)
This is when Ann Coulter (who can be heard on KSFO) boasted that she was the one who had sent an envelope containing white powder to Keller. cite
But what NYT Public Editor Byron Calame wanted to know, and what the people wanted to know is: Why did Keller wait a year to print the NSA Story?
The NYT's Unconscionable Decision To Sit On The NSA Story For A Year
Lawrence Velvel
January 7, 2006
"No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."
Then began shitstorm number two, in June of 2006, with the SWIFT banking story. Keller tried to explain his position here:
When Do We Publish a Secret?
By DEAN BAQUET AND BILL KELLER
Published: July 1, 2006
SINCE Sept. 11, 2001, newspaper editors have faced excruciating choices in covering the government's efforts to protect the country from terrorist agents. Each of us has, on a number of occasions, withheld information because we were convinced that publishing it could put lives at risk. On other occasions, each of us has decided to publish classified information over strong objections from our government.
Last week our newspapers disclosed a secret Bush administration program to monitor international banking transactions. We did so after appeals from senior administration officials to hold the story. Our reports -- like earlier press disclosures of secret measures to combat terrorism -- revived an emotional national debate, featuring angry calls of ''treason'' and proposals that journalists be jailed along with much genuine concern and confusion about the role of the press in times like these.
Bush fanned the flames when he accused the New York Times of compromising national security... some call it treason.
Bush condemns leak of bank program
Officials criticize newspaper over story on anti-terror program
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Posted: 1002 GMT (1802 HKT)
The administration asked the papers to hold the stories, arguing security would be compromised.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration on Monday stepped up its criticism of newspapers that disclosed the existence of an effort to collect bank records of suspected terrorists, singling out The New York Times in particular.
"Congress was briefed, and what we did was fully authorized under the law," President Bush told reporters. "And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful."
Media Matters' overview:
Following the publication of a June 23 New York Times article detailing a secret Treasury Department program designed to monitor terrorists' international financial transactions, President Bush and other senior administration officials accused the newspaper of tipping off America's enemies and jeopardizing national security. Numerous conservative commentators joined the White House in arguing that the Times had informed terrorists of the U.S. government's ability to track their financial activities -- some going so far as to accuse the newspaper of treason. Media Matters
But it wasn't the terrorists who were tipped off... it was the banks in Europe. The SWIFT story was an international shitstorm, as the US sifting through records of international banks was a violation of international & EU banking laws.
What's it all about?
The shitstorm rages on within the paper. In January of 2006 Public Editor Byron Calame petitioned the exec editor Keller by email with 35 questions as to why they had not run with the NSA story in 2004. He never got a clear answer (Eavesdropping and the Election: An Answer on the Question of Timing), then seemed to back down; now Keller announces that the Public Editor may well be leaving this May. Is Barney Calame going to lose his job because he publicly questioned Keller's decision not to run the NSA story in October of 2004?
Will Bill Keller End ‘Public Editor’ Slot at The Times?
Dan Okrent Protests; Faithful Barney Calame Sputters Weary Defense
New York Observer; Off the Record
January 8, 2007
By Michael Calderone
and this quote from Calame, Public Editor of the NYT:
Calame told the Observer, "I have been critical of the newsroom. I’ve also praised the newsroom, and I think that Bill Keller has been—quite obviously—unhappy with some of the things I’ve written....It seems to me that the high degree of independence that has been given to the public editor at The New York Times makes it a situation that inevitably causes criticism." cite
Short conclusion to a twisted tale:
The New York Times continues to be the most influential newspaper in the US. Keller caved in to Bush in October of 2004 and delayed printing the NSA story for a year, but when they came out, they came out punching... through the valiant reporting of Eric Lichtblau, Scott Shane, and James Risen.
Worlds away in the city by the bay, talking heads Melanie Morgan, Ann Coulter, Brian Sussman, Officer Vic of KSFO began calling for the execution of executive editor of the NYT on charges of treason. Spocko, that polite man of letters, began a letter writing campaign to KSFO advertisers pointing out, through brief audio clips, the inflammatory hate speech on the radio. The blog world responded. The New York Times picked up the story.... and it ain't over till it's over.
Keep writing those letters. Write to Disney/ABC; write to the advertisers on KSFO.
Email me for list.
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