Take it like a toadie, Ross

From the blog of ABC's investigative reporter, Brian Ross:

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

Lock the motherfuckers up. Put 'em on waterboards. Pistol whip 'em. Flush their Blackberries after gleaning. Threaten their families. Make 'em cry for months on end in some rank dungeon in Kazakhstan.

The corporate press makes excuses - daily - for MY rights getting trampled. When it's their ox getting gored - oh my, well, that's different.

A blank check from the news media to the Republican Party created the monster known as George W. Bush and then greased the skids for his every crime. And they're still doing it. Why anyone makes a distinction between corporate news media and government at this late date - with all we've been forced to endure for the last decade, in particular - is a mystery to me. They are two faces of the same monolith and bear the same degree of responsibility for unleashing the plague of neoconservatism on the world. Yeah, I said it: the same degree of responsibility.

Whether Brian Ross or Tony Snow or Dick Cheney or Bob Schieffer or Karl Rove or Generalissimo Bush or Katie Fucking Couric, they're all elitist assholes who don't give a righteous shit that The Republic lies in ashes... at least not until it's their sorry asses that get ground up in the cogs of oppression like yesterday's beef. Fuck 'em.

Jill of Brilliant at Breakfast saved me the trouble of leaving a comment for Mr. Ross:

You guys in the press have been sucking up to this president from the very beginning. You reported his lies, you bought the B.S., and you did it all for access and so you could get invited to the right parties, and so he could towel-snap you and give you stupid nicknames.

And where did it get you? Monitored by the NSA.

Maybe if you'd done your job from the beginning, we wouldn't be living in a fascist state run by a madman right now. But no....it was more important that Al Gore was stiff and John Kerry had no charisma. You wanted to drink beer with this guy? Fine. Drink your beer with him. But don't start crying now about your rights being violated.

Posted by: Jill | May 15, 2006 12:51:01 PM