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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: KLP who wrote (162524)3/29/2006 9:39:30 PM
From: LindyBill  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 793900
 
Powerline ran it down.

Verdict: The New York Times Blew the Story

We promised to obtain the transcript of the hearing and figure out who was right. The transcript is available here.

Having reviewed the transcript, I conclude that the Washington Times' characterization was fair, but arguably overstated. The New York Times, however, badly misled its readers. Here are the exchanges where the judges talked about the President's constitutional authority to order warrantless surveillance:

New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau has a considerable career investment (and, I suspect, an ideological investment as well) in the idea that the NSA program is illegal. It would seem that Lichtblau's preconceptions and biases prevented him from accurately reporting what happened in the Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday. His suggestion that the main thrust of the judges' testimony was to "voice skepticism about the president's constitutional authority" is simply wrong; in fact, I can't find a single line in more than 100 pages of transcript that supports Lichtblau's reporting. It's a sad thing when a once-respected newspaper can't be counted on for a straight account of a Congressional hearing.

powerlineblog.com