Posted on 05/19/2006 1:18:53 PM PDT by george76
I all fairness, I'd say she probably had the number for Bell-South's PR representative who likely didn't even know what the NSA acronym stands for and absolutely no knowledge if the company had or had not turned over an information. The fact that they called "the night before the story was published" means they didn't give a damn if it were true or not. It was after regular business hours when the PR rep was probably at home with his/her feet up watching TV and with only hours to figure out who to call to either verify or deny the story. That "who to call" thing is the tough one. Corporate people are generally not sitting around waiting for off the wall press inquiries with pre-prepared say-nothing statements like government slumps. They have a life.
If it involved a security related issue any answer, affirmative or negative, would have to go through a team of lawyers to work out a statement. If Bell South had been working with the NSA, it would have been a tightly held secret and not something that was common knowledge. The PR rep might have been able to contact some of the execs who said "I never heard of it" but that does not mean it didn't happen and to issue a statement that might not be true is a capital offense in the PR world.
Imagine trying to find and craft an answer on the short deadline given them by the drive-by media.
Rule one of Corporate PR is to never lie. Rule 2 is that if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Ask for more time to find out or just don't say anything, which apparently is what Bell South did when put in an impossible situation. You never let a media deadline drive you into a serious mistake.
USA Today claimed they had worked on the story for months yet waited till the last possible moment when they knew damn well they were asking the impossible. Could they have held the story for one more day to give Bell South at least one business day to provide an answer? Yes, they could have but intentionally chose not to. That goes well beyond shoddy journalism. It shows that they don't give a damn if the story is true or not.
"I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast." William Tecumseh Sherman
The old school media is really taking some lumps lately. [grin]
Cauley fits right into the noble tradition of Jayson Blair, Dan Blather, Mary Mapes, Jason Leopold, Jennifer Loven, Dana Priest, and friends...... all leftists with an agenda, facts be damned. They should all be driven straight out of journalism, but so far as I'm aware only Jayson Blair has met with any lasting obstacles (and he still manage to publish a book about his fraudlent life).
bttt
Quoting...
And for all of the hype, there may not even be much “news” here.
Last December 24, a few days after they spilled the beans about the NSA terrorist surveillance program, New York Times reporters Eric Lichtblau and James Risen disclosed how U.S. phone companies were helping the NSA by giving them “access to streams of domestic and international communications.”
http://newsbusters.org/node/5319
William Tecumseh Sherman got it right.
They don't look for them - that's all they have
I see nothing wrong with reporters supporting candidates of their choice (on their time) just like any other citizen. I do see a problem however with reporters/newspapers printing fabrications and calling it real news. But then again I have come to expect that from much of our beloved MSM.
A really sorry bunch of *******s!
"... the messy process was clearing the use of anonymous sources, on which the story was based.
...the use of confidential, unnamed sources."
Maybe Leslie Cauley should stick to writing and glorifying the gay agendas in America.
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?fr=ybr_sbc&p=Leslie%20Cauley%20+%20lesbian
You got it. They have to be thoroughly indoctrinated communists to receive their jobs.
And guess who just resigned?
"This is shaping up to be a major test of the value of the press, the watchdog function of the press," said Bill Kovach, chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. "If the press turns out to be right, they will have done a real service. If it turns out to be wrong, it will be a real blow to all of us."
Marvin Kalb, a senior fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University, agreed with the seriousness of the situation, stressing that "nobody has denied the essence of that story, just that [the phone companies] gave documents to the government."
Marvin Kalb's defense is classic Rathergate, where the documents may not be real, but the general message of them is.
http://newsbusters.org/node/5445
The FCC... <- What good is it.. A 300 million dollar budget for WHAT?.. Putting asses in seats?...
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