having read the article:
truthout.org
here's my take on it:
this may not be the article to make a case on, to take a stand on, for it appears to me the SWIFT program was public knowledge, didn't reveal classified information - so it is doubtful, to me, the case could be won
how ever, I do think it has happened in the past, by this and other papers/reporters gunning for an administration or going after sensationalism at any cost
and not just in newspapers - TV news programs too [Dan Rather comes to mind]
they have countless times stepped over the line
I have lost respect journalism in general - it's so biased, so dramatic - the movie Network had the direction it would take pinned decades ago - Broadcast news nailed it too, with pretty brainless boys delivering the news - it's all about image, delivery, ratings and circulation - damn the facts - damn caution, damn the use of restraint if there is any chance in getting an eye [or ear] catching headline
a good majority of the press has become a questionable 3 ring circus
this NYT article used the SWIFT program to imply our right to privacy regarding financial records is being secretly abused along with the implication the administration is hiding it from congress - yet they defend printing the story as the " Bush administration has made no secret of its campaign to disrupt terrorist financing, and President Bush, Treasury officials and others have spoken publicly about those efforts" and "the growing indications that this and other financial monitoring operations were hardly a secret to the terrorist world"
I guess the NYT is saying the government's use of the SWIFT program is secret only to Americans and congress but a well known fact to terrorists - some how I'm just not buying the story
and it's the very reason I question the honesty, reliability and bias of the press |
