NSA Report Means More Trouble For 60 Minutes

Technorati Tags: NSA,Infomercial,National Security

Technorati Tags: Edward Snowden,Kewith Alexander,Spying

Technorati Tags: 60 Minutes

On the same day reports circulated that the reporters behind a fatally flawed, retracted 60 Minutes story may return to CBS News’ airwaves as soon as early January, the program again faced criticism for a report that critics are calling a “puff piece” and an “infomercial.”

On December 15, 60 Minutes aired a report on the National Security Agency based on unprecedented access to its headquarters and interviews with Agency staff, including its chief, Keith Alexander, who discussed the concerns many Americans have about its operations since the disclosures by Edward Snowden.

The segment opened with reporter John Miller’s acknowledgement that he had once worked at another federal intelligence agency. It featured no critics of the NSA. Miller explained his thoughts on the story in an interview with CBS News, saying that the NSA’s view is “really the side of the story that has been mined only in the most superficial ways. We’ve heard plenty from the critics. We’ve heard a lot from Edward Snowden. Where there’s been a distinctive shortage is, putting the NSA to the test and saying not just ‘We called for comment today’ but to get into the conversation and say that sounds a lot like spying on Americans, and then say, ‘Well, explain that.'”

Miller’s report was immediately ripped apart by NSA critics and veteran journalists. Some have called the veracity of CBS News’ reporting into question. Others termed the segment a “puff piece” and an “embarrassing” “infomercial,” saying that it filmed was under guidelines that overwhelmingly favored the agency and proved the effectiveness of the NSA’s communications staff.

The NSA report is only the latest of several heavily criticized 60 Minutes stories. Most notably, the network wasforced to retract and remove from the airwaves the reporters responsible for a segment based on a supposed eyewitness to the 2012 Benghazi attacks who apparently fabricated his story. The day after the NSA story ran and less than three weeks after the leaves of absence were announced, Politico reported that those journalists, Lara Logan and Max McClellan, have “started booking camera crews for news packages” and could return to 60 Minutes as early as January. In recent weeks the program has also been criticized for reports onSocial Security disability benefits and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos.

This series of debacles was noted by former CBS News correspondent Marvin Kalb, who was at one time the moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, who wrote that a program that “used to be the gold standard of network magazine programs” is increasingly “under fire.” He concluded:

What’s clear from this episode is that 60 Minutes is not facing another Lara Logan embarrassment. Miller did not get his facts wrong; he just did a story on 60 Minutes that should never have been on 60 Minutes. It was a promotional piece, almost by his own admission. In addition, the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley did a story on the 60 Minutes Miller piece to help promote it, as though it were an exceptional exclusive, which it was not.

In a funny way, all of this fresh criticism can be seen as a compliment. People expect 60 Minutes to be a place on the dial for tough questioning and rigorous reporting. When it does anything less than that, it opens itself to snap judgments that may be unfair but should not be surprising. It should, though, suggest strongly that CBS has further need for continuing self-examination.

Politico‘s Dylan Byers similarly opined that 60 Minutes has had “a terrible year” and that the program “is desperately in need of a news package that earns it praise rather than criticism.It needs to put up a hard-hitting investigation, fact-checked to the teeth, that doesn’t come off as a promotional puff-piece. Because its reputation as the gold standard of television journalism has taken some serious hits of late.”

Miller referred questions from Media Matters about the segment to a CBS News spokesperson who declined to comment on the record.

Sweat Shop Wages Thirty-Two Years Of Reaganomics – Continues With Obama As President

We are workers who need a living wage.

When Obama talks about economic numbers what he really is talking about is how well investors are doing financially; he never talks about workers and their ability to pay their living expenses or own their own home. When Obama gives his’ speeches on the state of the economy he’s being disingenuous what he doesn’t tell the American people is that there’s two economies the one he always refers to is the rich people the top 2%; he never refers to the working class where 98& of us reside. Obama refers to the top 2% because they line his’pockets with gold sad but true. I Am A Labor Trying To Feed My Family  Obama is a Blue Dog Democrat and when he gives his’ public speeches he chooses his’ words carefully to intentionally miss lead the American People. The President talks a good game; he even blast his Republican rivals to put on an act, but he agrees with them on many issues like Free Trade and expanding our military presence all over the global we have become the world police protecting the trade routes of the transnational corporations. The Free Trade Agreement have been a night mire for the North American working class because it forces the American worker to compete against workers in 3rd and 4th world countries where the people live in subhuman conditions, no running water, no bathrooms, the people are suffering from malnutrition and dying young from serious illnesses from the poor diet. Multiple family living in 12 X 12 rooms very crowded conditions, and dirt roads with no transportation.

These giant global corporations violate human rights, no labor laws to obey, no child labor laws, no minimum wage laws, no overtime laws, and workers aren’t allowed to organize. In fact the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United States Chamber of Commerce are behind this effort to take away all human rights from the working class creating  a Dictatorship Maxist Socialist World By Global Corporations. This classless society will have no human rights or any political muscle. Small business owners across North American should be outraged at these actions and small business owners should band together and leave the Chamber of Commerce because they aren’t defending your interest. Small business should come together and create their own social network to challenge corporate domination. Americans should be outraged. How Much Do Workers Earn In Third World Countries This will stock you the working conditions and their standard of living. These are sub-human conditions without any hope or human rights.

These workers have quotas they must meet meanings 16 to 20 hours days of work without enough rest, often sleeping in the factory to keep up with the demands of production, and if they fall behind schedule they ‘ll be beaten brutally by their foreman. Often these workers are cheated out of their wages, and they’re taxed unlawfully these global corporations rob these of their wages workers. These are crime that go unpunished and no one is ever brought to justice. They pollute the drinking water they contaminate the food supply they cause illnesses they even cause death, and where’s the world’s outcry for these innocent people. No one seems to care as longest as it’s not in their backward or effected by this directly.

Ayn Rand First Interview 1959 (Full)

E VOTING: The Future of Democracy?

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It's election time in the US and we devote this week's show to to discover if the future of democracy is digital. And in Test 24 we check out the new console that promises to "change the way you play". The Wii U hits the shelves in the US and Europe in the coming weeks.

America’s Deceptive 2012 Fiscal Cliff (Part 2)

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NRA coming to White House: Will there be fireworks? (via The Christian Science Monitor)

Vice President Joe Biden kicked off three days of meetings on gun violence Wednesday as part of his task force aimed at presenting proposals to President Obama by the end of the month. But even before the first session could begin – a closed-door meeting with representatives of gun-control groups…

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Republicans rake leader for stalling on US storm aid (via AFP)

US President Barack Obama urged Congress Wednesday to approve emergency relief for victims of superstorm Sandy, as Republicans savaged their House leader for playing politics with disaster aid. The Senate has already passed a $60.4 billion aid package put forward by the White House to help northeast…

The Fiscal Financial Cliff Was Created To Protect Millionaires And Billionaires This Was A Win Win For The 1%

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Do Tax Cuts Hurt Growth?

It’s been clear for a long time that lower tax rates don’t have much long term effect on economic growth. For example, can you determine which years have low or high tax rates from the following graph?

But recent analysis by Ethan Kaplan of the University of Maryland actually shows that lower tax rates lead to lower economic growth! Here is Kaplan’s scatter-plot of real growth rates versus top marginal tax rates. The correlation is clearly positive – meaning higher tax rates correspond to higher growth and lower tax rates correspond to lower growth.

 

 

How the plutocrats are handling Mitt Romney’s loss

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How the plutocrats are handling Mitt Romney’s loss

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