Abuse Of Power And A Weak Media - A Recipe For Fascism

We all know the story of how the New York Times sat on the story about King George's NSA domestic wiretapping for a year, and IMO the NYT has a lot to answer for. But now we find out that "the little dictator that could" was absolutely desperate to have the story quashed. Jonathan Alter reports in Newsweek The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security. ------ I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president's desperation. Keep in mind, that the NYT had already kept this story under wraps for a year. This was nothing more than an attempt by George to intimidate even more than he already had. He wasn't concerned about national security at all. As he has his entire life, he was concerned with himself and how it would affect HIS life. To hell with the lives of the people he inflicted this intrusion of personal information on, he was just concerned that his legacy would be tarnished even more than it is by showing one and all he broke the law. As for the NYT, it certainly makes one wonder just how much of this story they kept out of what was published. We already know that George is an arrogant pissant who will do anything to inrease his wealth and power including trashing the Constitution. But what of the press (in this case the NYT) that is supposed to hold any governments' feet to the fire, and expose abuses of power? I find it awfully strange that they all had a field day over Bill Clinton's sexual escapades. Hell we had sex stories shoved at us 24/7 for chrissakes! Here is a case where an out of control little dictator rips the Constitution to shreds and they cave in to pressure and either don't report the story or when they do they water it down. Methinks the NYT and the rest of the media have a lot of explaining to do and a hearty congratulations to Jonathan Alter for doing his job. Perhaps the rest of the MSM should wake up and take notice of what a good reporter is supposed to do - dig around and get the story instead of just repeating the government's latest talking points. For the rest of Jonathan Alter's report, visit Newsweek.