This is an example of just desserts where journalists are concerned. After all of your shilling for bush, your complicity in the lies that led this country into war, your abandonment of your duty to expose the criminal malfeasance of this administration, this is your reward. If you had a shred of common sense, you would have seen this coming years ago, when the Patriot Act was rammed through congress, when an illegal war of aggression was waged through lies and deceit, when civilians were tortured in Abu Ghraib, when others were kidnapped and "rendered" to murderous regimes, when Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame were savagely attacked, when the swiftboats took out Kerry, when Richard Clarke and other whisteleblowers were brutalized, all with the complictiy of the press. American journalists have aided and abetted bush's criminal actions at every turn, and thus they deserve whatever they get from him.

How richly ironic that you now find yourselves being subjected to the government's vicious wrath. Even better than this is the fact that, with your help, bush has been able to stock the judiciary with lunatics from the Federalist Society who will doubless find the government's actions constitutional. When those who received leaks go to jail it won't be for a Miller-like 86 days, but rather for decades. That will be the proper punishment for giving aid and comfort to a group of war criminals and a dictator in the making.

Congratulations.

Does ABC plan to take any action in response?

Tonight we're going to party like it's 1917! Go, Georgie, Go! Do the Gulag Shuffle!

man this is scary

It is unfair.
where is the liberty of the unit states?

This is only the latest outrage by a government in Washington that is far more dangerous to our freedoms as Americans than any previous administration -- even Richard Nixon's.

Those who argue that reporters should be checked up on are ignorant of the fact that a free and unfettered news media is our primary line of defense against a totalitarian dictatorship developing in this country.

Many of these media-bashing posters aren't young enough to remember the obscene and totally unconstitutional abuses of power of the Nixon administration -- abuses that led to Congress in 1978 passing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the first place, which the Bush administration is blatantly violating with its warrantless NSA electronic eavesdropping program.

The only difference between Nixon and Bush is that Nixon's abuses of power were all caught on Nixon's own secret White House taping system -- which proved to be his downfall.

The media-bashers need to re-read their history books and other historical records and learn about Watergate and other abuses of power by Nixon.

"Those who fail from history are condemned to repeat it," the philosopher George Satarnaya wrote. Today's media-bashers are not learning from history.

Big Brother is here, in your face, and they want you to know it.

Good on ABC for putting this in your front page. Given the WaPo's unethical conduct around their one night push poll on privacy as well as the lack of coverage of this piece, one must assume the WaPo doesn't have too much use for privacy or juournalistic integrity. No wonder their drop in readership is twice the industry average.

Like I said before, the NSA+CIA = KGB. The Republicans saw the Soviet police state model and they've built it here in the United States.

THIS PROGRAM IS SEPERATE FROM THE NSA PROGRAM. THIS IS AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION INTO THE BREAKING OF FEDERAL LAWS. THE FBI IS INVESTIGATING PEOPLE FOR LEAKING NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION, IT IS LIKE ANY CRIME, THEY INVESTIGATE IT.

I would like to make my true feelings known but afraid the storm troopers of the current administration would come knocking at my door, so all i have to say is I love you NSA! and what a fine job Bush is doing.

this is the kind of thing i used to imagine was happening back when i was a raving marxist conspiracy theorist in college, the kind of thing i had come to think of as ridiculous since my blood turned red again and i fell back in love with america. but it's happening. the nutjobs were right. they really are dismantling american democracy.
this quote from matt yglesias pretty much hits the nail on the head, i think:

One thing the Bush administration says it can do with this meta-data is to start tapping your calls and listening in, without getting a warrant from anyone. Having listened in on your calls, the administration asserts that if it doesn't like what it hears, it has the authority to detain you indefinitely without trial or charges, torture you until you confess or implicate others, extradite you to a Third World country to be tortured, ship you to a secret prison facility in Eastern Europe, or all of the above. If, having kidnapped and tortured you, the administration determines you were innocent after all, you'll be dumped without papers somewhere in Albania left to fend for yourself.

something's got to be done.

“The freedom of the press is on of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic government”

Thomas Jefferson quotes (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Primary Author of the Declaration of Independence.

A very interesting simmilarity. The secret agency of Germany ( BND ) is also spying on reporters, which is a big scandal in the German press now.
I guess the secret guys attended the same school for spying on peoples privacy.

Lets see now - email surveillance, phone surveillance, probably satellite imagery is the next thing to be found out as well.

This is almost a similiar experience that the former Soviet Union must have felt when the KGB ruled the roost.

Sounds to me like this program has no oversight. This article doesn't mention who in the FBI issues or keeps track of NSL's. What criteria, if any, is needed before
the FBI can issue a NSL? This smells bad.

I wonder how “backtracking” is different than “tracking?” Perhaps the Bush crew is working on a system to forwardtrack calls we haven’t yet made by monitoring our thoughts about who we might call (no doubt a DARPA project). But don’t worry; the actual content of our thoughts won’t be monitored. Now where did I put my tin foil hat…

One word....dicatorship... we can thank the republican controled congress and senate for the loss of Freedoms

Facism Will Come To America Wrapped In The Flag Carrying The Cross......S.Lewis

Orwell has been proven right!

This really stinks! Just another example of our Oh-So-Nosey government in action. I, personally, don't like the thought of "Big Brother" listening in on our conversations, no matter what the excuse they use. I realise they are looking for terrorists, but most of us do not fall into that category, am I right? I love my country, but I think we are going overboard a bit on the "Homeland Security" thing.

This harrassment and intimidation is a violation of our press's first amendment rights, not to mention it is a contemptuous mockery of our Bill of Rights. Purely the most extreme violation of our nation's moral principles, rules and standards of conduct. Why do you tolerate this and why do you kowtow to this criminal administration?

I read the previous story about the Bush administration looking into reporters' phone records and I became concerned about my First Amendment being threatened. Then I read the comments below it and realized how many people are willing to let hang the people who take risks for them everyday. That's evident in the state of our newspaper industry as well; journalists who have been working for decades to defend the public's right to know are being laid off because of public apathy. What's worse, some voters who won't pick up a paper to become informed want to deny the rest of the population that right. Saying that journalists need to be watched so they don't say anything bad about this administration is the antithesis of patriotism. Maybe it's time for those people to reread the Constitution, or perhaps read it for the first time.

If companies are required by law to provide phone records to the government how is it that Qwest was able to refuse without prosecution? Or should we just stay tuned?

I would hope that at least this instance of government wrongdoing gets the media's attention.

Why was this not the lead story last night? It wasn't even 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. Oh wait, it didn't event make the broadcast.

The press is not immune from criminal investigations. You can't claim to be a whistleblower if your own act of leaking information is illegal. A true whistleblower would be the person who turned in the leaker.

Is the U.S. Government more afraid of "terrorists" or of a non-violent Revolution to form a new Government.
I believe this is clearly a government terrified of its own citizens! I have no problem with being surveiled for speaking truth to power about a Government at the pinnacle of obscenity. Put me on all the god damn lists you want! I've been reading and re-reading the Declaration of Independence lately, if I went out on the street corner and started reading it I would be arrested for trying to incite a riot! I'm the Patriot, Tyrant Bush is the terrorist, who are you? DOWN WITH KING GEORGE - FREEDOM! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Why not, isn't that what reporters do to other people.

The Bush administration is, by far, the most dangerous threat to our form of goverenment since its inception.
All conscious citizens are frightened. Suppose he has the Supreme Court invalidate inconvenient elections. The country has allowed this 'silent' coup to take place.
To see the polls showing 40% don't get it and the press acting as if the left leaning attitude of the country is an abberation - this is a g'dam nightmare.

I was right. During the war against Irak I told some Danes, that after the end of it they would be back enjoying free speech, but the poor Americans had lost theirs forever with the patriot act. I sometimes HATE to be right.

News outlets should be very worried, as all of us should be, with the way this administration is encroaching unchecked into our lives and businesses. Please stand up and speak out - our way of life is at stake. Millions are paying attention. We can stop this administration only if you expose what is going on.

America the free!! inorisonment without due process.. walls around your borders.. extrodinary extridition... and everyones phone calls are now tracked..

Way to go Bush.. way to go freedom loving people who voted for him..
Exactly what "FREEDOM" are you trying to export with your wars in evrybody elses land..??

The FBI is breaking the law in order to define whether an American citizen is breaking the law? Go figure.

Almost there, Once the Government has those who report on it under their thumb They can do anything without fear of reprisal! Viva The Desider!

This is part of a very disturbing trend in this country, under this administration.
Sadly, the American people are not outraged by the civil liberties and rights that are being taken away in the face of fear, and therefore allow it to happen.

And yet, ABC and the msm will find a way to spin this in Bush's favor... .

Enjoy the irony. This is what happens when the MSM rolls over and plays dead for 5+ years while the administration erodes our rights. Doesn't feel so good, does it? Enjoy the world you helped create because you were afraid of losing "access."

These are scary times. Here is Big Brother and the Secret Police, but where is the outcry? There was a time when both sides of the political spectrum decried government snooping and dirty tricks. Now, 4 hijacked planes and a steady diet of fear has turned this country toward an authoritarian government, without public resistance.

Apparently, democracy was only a veneer that sounded nice, but nobody really believed in. How easily our leaders have betrayed all those who fought and died over the centuries for the higher goals and aspirations of this country. America, you are giving up your freedoms, liberties and civil rights for the illusion of security.

The terrorists won.

This is the beginning of facism.

The next step is to give every American an ID card and make it a felony not to have it on your person at all tmes. Why not make it a reason for probable cause so that all can be searched at any time. (I hope you know I am being sarcastic? Trouble is I believe the government is headed in this direction with the introduction of the "Tamper Proof" "Green Card")

Brian Ross is a treasure. I looked for this story on the news last night and on Nightline. This is a BIG story. Younger people have to be educated as to how important a free press is. If ABC, the Times, and the Post aren't going to sue over this, the slippery slope just became 180 degrees.

Thank you,
Maureen Marr

Excuse me, but wasn't the Patriot Act meant to be used to track terrorists or something. It sure makes me feel good that it is being used to destroy that wacky "free press" idea the founding fathers joked about in that Constitution thingy. What a sense of humor they had back then!!

This is ridiculous. What next? Secret prisons for "dissidents"?

The very existence of NSLs is an injury to the Constitution...

Be very afraid...your corporate masters and your govt are one and the same...read your Mussolini...
Communism is where the means of production are owned by the State, fascism is where the owners of the means of production own the State...

We have lost our way...

RGJ

This suggests that you need to be clever about how you communicate with your sources. I assume you are already.

It might be very useful to explain to people how easy most of this is to bypass. I think ABC news could do a public service by showing people these provisions are really dumb laws that do not work.

at the risk of being a jerk, WE TOLD YOU SO.
We TOLD YOU SO in 2000. And in 2004.
But no, you guys in the press thought GWB was a GREAT guy to have a beer with (who in their right mind drinks with admitted alcoholics?), so he'd be a great president. Real smart, fellas, real smart.
You get what you deserve.

Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government.

Under WHAT law? If the courts are not involved this is ILLEGAL and CANNOT be used in court. THis is against the FOURTH amendment to the Constitution...there is NO "probable cause"...this is an illegal search and Bush should be IMPEACHED because of it. (Remember he swore to uphold the Constitution??)

Why is this not front page news today?

Is this the end for whistleblowers?

Is this the death-knell for investigative journalism and the protection of confidential sources?

Why has no one else commented?

What part of "Fascist Police State" don't you understand?

Is there no end to this? What else are we going to uncover?

When is the media going to wake up and realized that this admminstration is breaking all kind of laws and that the American people need them more than ever to tell us the true. We need to get these idiots out of office - and quick. Start reporting on the illigalities!

Let's trade some more libherties for the sake of a little security, huh? If you aren't outraged, you don't have a clue.

This really is a sad time for our Constitution and the freedoms we used to enjoy, and that others around the world used to envy.

This administration has turned America into just another authoritarian regime.

Congratulations, US! You've arrived.

This is part of a Bush Administration campaign of intimidation against whistleblowers and the media, the latter being an unofficial, private branch of our democracy, which is a good thing.

We need a strong independent media and whistleblower protections. We need a transparent and accountable democracy. The media targetted by this campaign are some of the best left in the mainstream. CBS news has already been swiftboated.

This campaign is the tip of the iceberg, I expect with trepidation...

The American People should explore limiting the President's Power of Pardon so that it is not abused the way the Bush 41 Administration pre-emptively pardoned that wider circle of Iran-Contra Conspirators in the Reagan-Bush Whitehouse on Christmas Eve 1992.

We should pre-emptively limit the President's Pardon Power because unless we put a stop to it now, we know what he's going to do on Christmas Eve 2008: pardon these abusive NSA spies on us who are creating databases of our social networks and cross referencing them to voter registration rolls, and who knows what else.

Bush will pardon the phone companies' executives who sold our personal information for profit and the executives of database firms like Choicepoint.

He's going to pardon the folks who lied us into Iraq for who knows what real reason. He will pardon the folks (Libby, Rove, Cheney) who outed Valerie Plame, ruining her cover, her cover company, and her network... And he's going to pardon folks pre-emptively for other crimes that will emerge later, like those folks in the Pentagon who said that Mohamed Atta was 'off limits' in late 2000 during the Able Danger datamining operation.

Perhaps some real information will emerge sooner if the Democrats take hold of Congress and do some investigating with subpoena power and very limited immunity this time.

All I see are patterns. The competant anti-terrorism whistleblowers are fired and harassed (O'Neill, Plame, maybe Franklin), and the independent media are run out of town.

Meanwhile the folks who let the plane attacks happen in September 2001, like Richard Myers, get promotions. The folks who said that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction get medals. Condi Rice who couldn't imagine planes flying into buildings as Security Advisor gets promoted, and she, the Russia expert, loses Russia as Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, the NSA has reconstructed your phone book, how you use it, what party you are in, as well as your car information, and maybe your tax filings... This is on tens or hundreds of millions citizens' records, not terrorists. It is said that information is power. To what end?

The President claims all this authority during 'wartime' for a war on terrorism that will never end, like Johnson's War on Poverty and Nixon's War on Drugs.

Terrorism is awful. During our 2001 attacks, 3000 died, and four buildings were destroyed. But this pales against the losses we sustained during the Civil War, and we survived it without much loss of rights. Lincoln leveled with Congress about the suspension of Habeas Corpus when it got back in session.

Not Bush. We must depend on the media and whistleblowers more than ever to tell us how our rights are being destroyed. Now three hundred million peoples' rights are being usurped by the President to protect us against people who want to change our way of life. Congratulations, President Bush, you let the terrorists win.

Maybe the corporate media will finally wake up and stop selling Bush and start calling for his impeachment. That in cooperating with Bush to steal our freedoms that they have list theirs.

It will only get worse unless you "The Press" keep this on the front page.

Now the "darkness" descends on the twilight of the free press. We ARE the ENEMY.

*cry*

Where is this going to end? I heard a blurb this morning on my local radio station about this. I had a difficult time finding any reports on it. People do not seem to care that our civil rights are being dumped by having our telephone records looked at, and now, I guess we are no longer entitled to a free press. I never in my life thought I would see something like this happen in our country. Please get this word out. Maybe people will start to think twice about what our elected officials are doing.

Big Brother is watching. A subpoena not signed by a judge? It doesn't matter anyway, since it seems that many major phone companies are willing to SELL the government our phone records. I am ashamed to be a part of this country.

Will the United States now become the most technologically advanced police state the world has ever known? We are on the brink even now. Thanks a lot George. I am so sorry I voted for you.

Bush said the domestic spying was only for catching terrorists. Now they are using spy techniques to catch leakers. We knew it was a lie when Bush said they were only tracking calls from Al Qaeda.

What will they use the technology for next? They'll use it to intimidate jounalists and anybody else who questions authority.

This is illegal and should stay that way. This is another thing that makes me believe that Bush was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks....
IMPEACH immediately

I guess this explains why Bob Woodward had to meet with "Deep Throat" in person rather than discussing things on the telephone. Woodward had a pretty well developed sense of paranoia that was right on the mark. I suggest that investigative journalists develop a similar distrust of the current administration. And just remember this date: January 10, 2009. Hang in there, America!

Do you think NOW the press has a personal stake in the issue of privacy? One of the fundamental tenets of a free and open democratic process involves the active participation of the the press. Grow a backbone...

This is unacceptable in a democracy! National Secuirty Letters were meant to be used to go after potential terrorists, not journalists. Freedom of the press must be preserved- it's all we have left.

So are NSLs for going after terrorists? or are they for creating and enforcing a 1984-style police state?

These are sad days for America.

Do we live in America or the Soviet Union?

So when will the FBI start back tracking the White House leakers?

It is amazing that the same government that is saying people in Iraq must be willing to die so they may be free is telling Americans they should be willing to give up their freedoms so they do not die.

Talk about double speak.

I don't see a problem with this. Someone leaks... first off its not "leaking" its disclosing confidential, secret or top secret information. Any of which can harm national security. The FBI CIA et al are tasked with finding, arresting and prosecuting those who disclose this information. They have an ongoing investigation, they need to subpoena records to investigate and find the guilty parties.

Fascism is alive and well in Bush's Orwellian administration. As if we didn't know this already.

What is it going to take to get these people out of office, they are the most corrupt and dangerouse administration ever if we were a foreign coutry we would be threatning to bomb ourselves. It is totally disgusting, I hope you can do your part in keeping these people out of our personal lives. ww

Big Brother Is Watching YOU

Perhaps NOW the media will start reporting on what a serious violation of our constitutional rights this TIA has become...

How can this be legal? I can understand getting the phone records of the SUSPECTED LEAKER, but not from people not suspected of a crime -- the reporters being investigated are innocent of any crime. lacking a warrant -- which surely the FBI could never get in such a situation -- it's obviously an invasion of privacy.

This is a good program. The press have entered the political fray and should be viewed warily by all parties. If complicit in law breaking they should cooperate and, perhaps, prosecuted.

The damage that terrorists pose to our life and property pales in comparison to the damage that the FEAR of terrorism can do to our moral convictions, Bill of Rights, Constitution and international relationships. To surrender any of these in the name of security is to play right into the terrorists' hands...and what we willingly surrender in the name of security may never be reclaimed.

As members of a "free" and "democratic" society, we would be outraged if we heard these abuses we being commited by China, Russia or Iraq. How can we hold ourselves to a lesser standard? It is hypocracy of the highest order and if we hold our freedoms dear, we MUST hold our government accountable for the abuses it perpatrates in our name.

So, we just lost "freedom of the press", to the thunderous sound of public indifference. All hail our new neocon overlords! And all the conservatives are still so worried about losing their gun rights, so when the ghost of King George III comes to take their rights away. Hah! Fools. What insanity could possibly be next?

What I find most interesting, is the fact that all of this complex system of phonre record tracking may be easily circumvented by use of multiple random public phones, or a voip connection, or hell EVEN A HAM RADIO. This will not (or could not) be used stop ANY terrorist, only as above, to reign in the media. Welcome to our dystopic future!

so you think this story will NOW be on World News Tonight? Somehow, I doubt it.
When the rest of the networks led with Tom DeLay's indictment, and ABC's lead story was the Internet porn investigation, I knew that ABC News is too reluctant to criticize this Admin.

ABC News is too reluctant to criticize this Admin.

maybe, but kudos to brian ross for this. seems like the kinda thing reporters would be interested in. so few of them left, i suppose.

The fourth estate will have to be cagier about how they get their information. Our dictators are looking for what they would call "traitors" (I would call them brave patriots) that are providing information on the criminal activities of this administration. The Constitution and laws of this nation have not been suspended, to our knowledge and until these crooks make that mistake, they are still subject to them.

This has nothing to do with freedom of the press. This has to do with crimes that have been committed - the divulging of classified information. The FBI SHOULD be conducting thorough investigations. Just because you work for the media doesn't make you exempt from the law. The media is upset about this because if there aren't leaks of classified informationn they have less stories to air. With fewer "big" stories to air the have fewer viewers. With fewer viewers they can't charge the advertisers as much money.

"National Security Letters" are
nothing more than what were called
"Writs of Assistance" more than
two centuries ago--and we fought
a revolutionary war to stop the practice. Maybe we'll have to do that again.