One Year Delay in New York Times' Coverage of NSA Spying Scandal Exposes Flaws in U.S. Corporate Media

Interview with Norman Solomon, author and columnist, conducted by Scott Harris

New information about the National Security Agency's surveillance of American citizens, authorized by President Bush without required court warrants, has surfaced indicating that Attorney General John Ashcroft's Deputy James Comey, reportedly objected to the program. However, it seems that whatever objections may have been raised by top officials did not stop NSA spying on international communications involving U.S. citizens and residents.

News reports have also revealed that the NSA regularly shared information gathered from its monitoring of phone calls and email with other national intelligence agencies engaged in anti-terrorism operations such as the FBI, CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. But information about peace activists engaged in legal protest against the Iraq war were found in a covert government database last month. When the NSA was found to have spied on lawful political activists during the 1960s and 70s, Congress passed a law creating the Foreign Intelligence Security Courts, the very system that the Bush administration has now bypassed.

Although the NSA was found to have illegally spied on United Nations delegations during the run up to the Iraq war in 2003 -- and the New York Times had knowledge about the current domestic surveillance program a year ago -- American media outlets did little with this story until December 2005. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with author and syndicated columnist Norman Solomon, who examines the failure of the U.S. corporate media to aggressively report on the NSA scandal.

Norman Solomon, syndicated columnist, is author of "War Made Easy, How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death." Read Solomon's columns online at www.warmadeeasy.com

Related links:

Norman Solomon's Media Beat columns at www.fair.org/media-beat

"Momentum Builds for Congressional Investigation of Bush's Warrantless Surveillance," interview with The Progressive Editor Matthew Rothschild, conducted by Scott Harris, Between The Lines week ending 1/6/06

"Critics Say Bush Authorization of Domestic Spying Without Court Warrants Constitutes an Impeachable Offense," Interview with First Amendment Foundation Director Kit Gage, conducted by Scott Harris; Between The Lines week ending 12/30/05

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