ABC, CBS, CNN largely ignored Bush's claim of power to search mail

[TexasLawyer]

Fri, Jan 5, 2007 7:40pm EST

ABC, CBS, CNN largely ignored Bush's claim of power to search mail

Summary: While NBC has aired a segment on
President Bush's "signing statement" on a
postal reform bill that "quietly claimed
sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail
without a judge's warrant," ABC, CBS, and CNN
have largely ignored the story, and ABC reported
that Bush "acquired new powers" and suggested
that they were "included" the bill.

On January 4, the New York Daily News reported that on December 20, President Bush attached a "signing statement" to a postal reform bill that "quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant." According to the Daily News: "That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it."

ABC, CBS, and CNN have largely ignored the story, however, and ABC's Good Morning America reported that Bush "acquired new powers" and suggested that they were "included" the bill.

As Media Matters for America has noted, Bush's unprecedented use of "signing statements" -- through which Bush, according to Boston Globe staff writer Charlie Savage, has "quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office" -- has been largely ignored by the media.

On the January 4 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), whom Cavuto described as the "likely chairman" of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee, claimed that there is "no reason" for Bush's December 20 signing statement because existing law allows the president to obtain a search warrant after conducting a search.

<snip>

http://mediamatters.org/items/200701060002

[Drum]

1. Please, can such a story get some traction

THIS time?? Please?

[originalpckelly]

2. I'm going to try to organize a protest:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3055829

[Drum]

4. Very good! nt

[Joe Bacon]

24. Gee, WHERE is this Liberal Media I keep hearing about?

Outside of K.O., NOBODY in the "Liberal" Media will tell the truth about the evil cancer the Jesusbots have unleashed on America!

[Jim Sagle]

3. KNR

[aquart]

5. Leno did a joke on it.

Had a Bush impersonator come on and I assume he was slitting envelopes. "Mr. President, I didn't know you opened your own mail."

Bushbot: "Heh. Heh. It's not MY mail."

[Old and In the Way]

6. Stop paying bills that are mailed.

When they go to collection, tell 'em, "gee, haven't seen it, must be waiting review at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...he's reading all of our mail now, you know; he's probably got quite a backlog going. Guess you'll have to resend it by registered mail."

[Clark2008]

19. You know, that's an idea.

Except that you're still responsible for paying the bill - but it might buy you some time.

[HuffleClaw]

7. odd aint it

bigger fish to fry ?

[Frustratedlady]

8. CNN had quite a piece on it. I believe it was Cafferty.

I was busy with something else, but I think it was one of Cafferty's questions to the listeners for emails on their reaction.

[Wisconsin Larry]

9. We have been living in a dictatorship for some time with the corporate

media aiding and abetting the dictator. After more than 750 other signing statements writing his own law, Bush/Cheney will not stop until made to do so. Now that's a question for the 110 Congress.

[northofdenali]

10. I've been dreaming of a Constitutional Amendment -

preventing "signing statements" from becoming law.

[Igel]

25. Signing statements aren't law.

They do a bunch of things, but that's not one of them.

Mostly they say how the Executive will interpret the language of the Legislative, and say which interpretation(s) will be considered unconstitutional. The majority are trivial or boilerplate. But the statements themselves have no force of law.

[mirandapriestly]

12. The signing statements are scary

It's all sneaking up on us, one little surprise after the other which is how citizens described Nazi Germany's rise under Hitler and I no longer think it's melodramatic to make the comparison

[mirandapriestly]

11. The media has become our enemy

I'm sure there is no mention of the militarization of the intelligence agencies either

[shance]

15. Read Carl Bernsteins "The CIA and the Media". a 1977 article

That will give a better picture of what the "media" really is, versus what we "think" it is.

[bonito]

13. Media going for more consolidation with the FCC Jan. 19th

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3056684

[shance]

14. I and others have already seen that our mail has been illegally opened.

Some of you may as well.

Have you noticed some/many of you pieces of mail have been opened on the left side of the envelope - a vertical slice of about an inch to an inch and a half?

I have noticed it, With mine, the tear has always occurred on the left side.

Theyve already been opening the mail. Which is no excuse for them illegally continuing to open our mail. Remember, before the "signing statement", it was what we called a "felony".

[salin]

17. According to Waxman - it is still a felony

he has already called the admin on the signing statement throwing down the gauntlet - so to speak - that if they (exec branch) acts on the signing statement they would be breaking the law.

Go Henry!

[ck4829]

16. Thank you God, for David Brock and Media Matters for America

I'd never what we would do without them.

[tom_paine]

18. I will never understand our "half-slave/half-free" media

Sometimes it almost appears to operate as it did when in garnered the laurels and did fantastic work in the post WWII-era leading up to the Age Of Raygun, when it began to decline.

And sometimes, like with this, it continues to function as Soviet State Media Doing It's Duty and Looking the Other Way.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200701060002

:wtf:

[indepat]

20. Why does ABC, CBS, and CNN hate America and love a totalitarian fascist dictatorship?

:shrug:

[Sparkly]

21. I think it was ignored before now.

Gonzales, in his testimony, refused to answer the question of whether or not first class mail between American citizens had been or was being read. That answered it for me. And the media didn't blink.

[driver8]

22. It is amazing to me how far up the administration's ass the main stream media

is. The fact that they call themselves "journalists" is a joke. The "pResident" once again ignores the Constitution and the story is ignored by the press.

They make me sick...they are all fucking cowards.

[Uncle Joe]

23. They're not called the mass corporate media for nothing,

they do not care about the people's rights just corporate profits.