Illegal Warrantless Wiretap is to Terrorist Surveillance Program as CNN is to Journalists

[ProgressiveAmPatriot]

Illegal Warrantless Wiretap is to Terrorist Surveillance Program as CNN is to Organization of Journalists
by a progressive American patriot at the http://progressiveamericanpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/07/illegal-warrantless-wiretap-is-to.html">Progressive American Patriot blog

CNN's http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/27/gonzales/index.html">latest piece on Alberto Gonzalez's perjury before the Judiciary Committee is an impressive piece of spin. Just when you thought the MSM would just admit that Gonzalez is a stonewalling liar, CNN is happy to quote Tony Snow and parrot the worst piece of logic I have seen since Cheney http://progressiveamericanpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/06/cheney-did-not-say-he-is-no-longer.html">last spat on the Constitution.

In a strange Orwellian twist Snow "argued" that when FBI Director Robert Mueller testified that Gonzalez, contrary to his testimony, rushed to Ashcroft's bedside so that Ashcroft would approve warrantless NSA surveillance, Mueller never said anything about "terrorist surveillance program," and thus Gonzalez did not commit perjury. If you are confused, you should be. It makes no sense. When Snow refers to a "terrorist surveillance program," he is talking about the illegal warrantless wiretaps on US soil, which the FBI Director referred to as NSA surveillance. Yet, somehow, because the FBI Director did not use the Bush administration's Orwellian term "terrorist surveillance program," Gonzalez and Mueller were clearly not talking about the same thing? As TMPmuckraker http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003805.php">puts it:

"(Snow says) Mueller didn't mean what he obviously meant."

Now, we expect this kind of spin from Snow. With a wink and a nod, he basically acknowledges the blatant propagandist that he is. CNN, on the other hand, still seems to think that they employ journalists. Which brings us around to CNN's coverage of this latest spin.

In classic CNN fashion, CNN quotes Snow and then proceeds to use his Orwellian term "terrorist surveillance program" as their own:

"At issue is the terrorist surveillance program, which allowed security officials to eavesdrop without a warrant on phone calls into or out of the United States in which one of the parties is a suspected terrorist."

What a load of right wing propaganda. And this is not the quote from Snow, this is what CNN had to say. The criminals running the White House may have "allowed" warrantless wiretaps, but everyone involved blatantly broke the law. They did it despite it being clearly illegal. And they have yet to show that they were wiretapping actual terrorists as opposed to us pesky war protectors. But CNN is part of the liberal media, right? Why would they use such a term?

On top of this, with its bold investigative style, CNN feels comfortable calling Gonzalez's perjury an "apparent contradiction" in testimony. CNN has after all investigated what Tony Snow is saying, right? They went back and http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003805.php">looked at the transcript, right? After careful analysis they decided that it was only an "apparent contradiction" rather than perjury, right? Oh, if wishing made it so. Unfortunately, illegal warrantless wiretap is to terrorist surveillance program as CNN is to organization of journalists.