Oh Drat! Another One Bites The Dust
What's a poor, agitated lefty to do? Yet another "shocking big story" that will "bring the president down" has turned out to be - well - crap. BellSouth is demanding that USA Today retract the story from last week that accused the company of providing information to the NSA.
BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher denied the company had a contract with the National Security Agency and did not give access or provide call records to the spy agency as part of an effort to thwart any terrorist plots.
USA Today reported last week that the NSA has had access to records of billions of domestic calls and collected tens of millions of telephone records from data provided by BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T Inc..
"BellSouth insists that your newspaper retract the false and unsubstantiated statements you have made regarding our company," BellSouth said in a letter to USA Today President Craig Moon and the general counsel at the newspaper's parent company Gannett Co.
The NSA and the Bush administration has refused to confirm or deny the USA Today report.
Oops. I have no idea where case law on liability issues regarding the printing of false stories is, so I have no idea if USA Today is potentially in trouble over this one. I'd say there is a reporter and an editor or two who might be in a bit of hot water at the moment, though. I think my question from the other day is still relevant.
UPDATE: Editor and Publisher has an interesting little article about this controversy. Some people, veterans in journalism, are warning that this could be very, very bad indeed if the story turns out to be false. Others are maintaining that it will be no big deal. Here's my take: IF the story turns out to be false, or the bulk of it turns out that way, this will devastate the news media. Here's my reasoning. The media is already not trusted by a lot of Americans. There are polls saying that most people hold reporters in general in low esteem. This will really hurt if it turns out false. On the other hand, because most people simply are not concerned about this - per USA Today's own poll - if it turns out true it will NOT bolster the media's credibility.
This is almost a perfect lose-lose situation for the media.
By Dan, Friday, 19 May , 2006 @ 1:24 pm
Not sure how that means the story is dead. Just b/c BellSouth is demanding a retraction, doesn’t mean that the story can be retracted from people’s minds. You can’t unring a bell y’know?
By Gaius, Friday, 19 May , 2006 @ 1:30 pm
Yeah, I know. That’s what I hate about so much of this barrage of crap. It’s, quite frankly, a propaganda technique. Keep repeating the big lies until they get repeated as truth.
By Dan, Friday, 19 May , 2006 @ 1:31 pm
PS - Just b/c they demand a retraction, doesn’t mean that the original story is not correct. You could publish a post saying I’m a Democrat, which I could demand you delete. That doesn’t make me not a Democrat.