Media Bias Instead Of Fair And Balanced In Reports Of ‘Domestic Eavesdropping Program’

Lee P. Butler

"If somebody from al-Qaida is calling you, we’d like to know why," President Bush was recently quoted as saying. "We’re at war with a bunch of cold-blooded killers."

How much more plain does it have to be before liberal media representatives get off their sanctimonious high horses and join the majority of Americans who understand the sentiment of that statement?

If fact, just to be as fair as one can be, why can’t they simply drop their liberal bias at the desk of their word processors and produce a news story that just reports the basics of the story without adding in the bias that is prevailingly evident throughout the mainstream press.

As any writer, whether they graduated journalism school or not, should know that following the basic tenets of ‘who, what, where, when, and why’ is enough to give the reader all the information they need to understand what the premise of the story is supposed to be.

Anything else comes from the reader themselves.

Opinion pieces, such as the one you’re reading, follows another prescript where the writer controls the tempo, subject matter, and intended meaning the writer wants the readers have at their disposal as the readers make up their minds on how they are going to interpret what they have read.

Most people have come to believe the mainstream media is overwhelmingly tilted towards the liberal mindset because media elitists... especially those who ultimately control the information that is deseminated to the public; editors and publishers... have allowed the liberal ideology that dominates the perview of the journalistic community to blur the line between what is basic news related facts and the saturation of their ideological preference.

A perfect example of this is presented in the news reporting of President Bush’s decision in the aftermath of the 9-11 tragedy to give the National Security Agency the authority to perform wiretaps without court approval from the FISA court under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Despite a barrage of reporting misinformation surrounding this issue as an apparent attempt to once again skew the American mindset against the President and his administration, almost 70 percent of Americans polled support the President’s decision.

But that fact doesn’t faze media elitists, because they are bound and determined to destroy President Bush because he authorized the removal of a ruthless dictator and occupied his country with our military using an illegal justification of war, among other things, but most especially because he is a Republican.

One recent ‘news’ report covering the issue of NSA surveillance of terrorist activity as it relates to possible attacks inside this country called the operation a ‘domestic eavesdropping program’. Almost to a report, the media has consistently referred to the President’s decision in that manner even though they know that intercepts of transmissions are concentrated on international activity that is believed to be terrorist collusions connected with individuals inside America.

These media elitists know that their intended goal of repeating that misleading mantra is to scare people and make them worry that mean ol’ President Bush is watching them... they’ve even used the term ‘domestic spying’... oohh, Bush is ‘spying’ on you, everywhere you go king Bush is 'domesticly spying' on you!

And this is taking place under the guise of reporting the ‘news’.

Then before media elitists could see it coming, because they no longer have a tyrannical grip over the desemination of information to the masses, the issue had changed direction and an investigation into how the media got this sensitive national security information and why they thought it necessary to alert the terrorists about our activities and possibly breech the security of this nation was under way.

Since the media was already embroiled in the controversy of publishing the name of a CIA employee whose staus was no longer covert and generated a ‘leak’ investigation because of its connection to national security, many officials began to suggest that the release of this information actually was a part of an illegal activity of leaking classified information.

In this particular case, media elitists went on an attack instead of going through a process of investigative reporting to give all sides of the issue to the public as one would expect a news report to do. Especially, by their own admission, they held back the information for a year before finally releasing it, giving them ample opportunity to get all the relevant facts, not just the parts they wanted to reveal.

Even New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame has questioned the story surrounding the papers release of the story without getting responses to his answers. But even he isn't realy concerned about the 'facts' of the story, he's worried that sources will be discovered for prosecution.

"Telling readers the time that the reporters got one specific fact, for instance, could turn out to be a dangling thread of information that the White House or the Justice Department could tug at until it leads them to the source," Mr. Calame pooh-poohed. "Indeed, word came Friday that the Justice Department has opened an investigation into the disclosure of classified information about the eavesdropping."

Supposedly, 'leaking' classified information concerning national security is a crime, but according to these media elitists, it's only a crime if the name of a source is revealed that could lead to reporters getting in trouble. Plus, their hypocrisy is evident where they manufactured a crime in their 'leak' case, but see no need for prosecution of an actual crime of breeching national security in this 'leak' case.

One main part of information that was finally brought to light was the fact that members of Congress had been routinely briefed about the surveillance of terrorist activity through the program. As a recent report provided, the program, ‘had been vetted repeatedly by both Justice Department officials and member of Congress’.

Why wasn’t this information made readily available initially?

Would it have destroyed the very premise for releasing the story to begin with, which would now appear to be an attempt cause the President to lose favor with the American people by telling them that he was ‘spying on them’ with his ‘domestic spying program’ that was done ‘without permission’ even if terrorists were the intended targets?

Or was it so they could promote an 'attack Bush' book produced by one of their associates before the book's release date to boost sales as some have contended?

Either way, their plan has backfired on them. But it won’t stop them, because instead of learning from their mistakes, they seem determined to force their liberal ideology into their news coverage, while disregarding the fact that most Americans simply want the news, fair and balanced.