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Supreme Court Overturns Vermont Campaign Finance Law
Is Bush Administration's Bank Spy Program One Part of a Resurgent
Total Information Awareness?
Former Bush Spokesman Urges Newspapers to Run Pro-War Stories
by Former Vets With GOP Ties
Lawmakers, Regulators Face Key Decisions on Future of Media
Ownership, Internet, Public Access, Low Power Radio
Supreme Court Overturns Vermont Campaign Finance
Law
We take a look to the Supreme Court's decision overturning
Vermont's campaign finance law. The 1997 law placed the nation's
tightest restrictions on much candidates running for state
office in Vermont could spend on elections and on how much
individuals could bankroll candidates. [includes rush
transcript]
Is Bush Administration's Bank Spy Program One Part
of a Resurgent Total Information Awareness?
The Bush administration is lashing out at media outlets
for their reports on the government's secret monitoring of
international bank transactions without court-approval. We
speak with Georgetown law professor Jonathan Turley about
Total Information Awareness - he says the program was never
really killed. [includes rush
transcript]
The Bush administration is lashing out at The New York Times
and other media outlets for their reports on the government's
secret monitoring of international bank transactions without
court-approval. Speaking at the White House on Monday, President
Bush strongly denounced the disclosure of the program and
defended its legality.
- President Bush:
"Congress was briefed. And what we did was fully authorized
under the law. And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful.
We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the
United States of America, and for people to leak that program,
and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the
United States of America."
The New York Times, followed by other news organizations,
began publishing accounts of the program on Thursday evening.
Vice President Dick Cheney singled out the Times for criticism
saying "Some in the press, in particular The New York
Times, have made the job of defending against further terrorist
attacks more difficult by insisting on publishing detailed
information about vital national security programs."
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow went even
farther in denouncing the media's revelation of the program.
- White House Press Secretary Tony Snow:
"[T]he New York Times and other news organizations
ought to think long and hard about whether a public's right
to know in some cases might override somebody's right to
live, and whether in fact the publications of these could
place in jeopardy the safety of fellow Americans."
The secret monitoring program was enacted shortly after the
9/11 attacks in what government officials say is a crucial
weapon in tracking the financing of terrorist activity. The
banking information has been obtained from the Society for
Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT.
The organization helps direct trillions of dollars in daily
international bank transfers. SWIFT executives apparently
tried to withdraw from the program after becoming concerned
over its legality. The executives were persuaded to continue
their cooperation only after the intervention of top government
officials.
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times say the Bush administration
lobbied them to withhold publication on the grounds public
disclosure would harm national security. In a letters to readers
on Sunday, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wrote
"We believe The Times and others in the press have served
the public interest by accurately reporting on these programs
so that the public can have an informed view of them."
Former Bush Spokesman Urges Newspapers to Run Pro-War
Stories by Former Vets With GOP Ties
The Buffalo News has revealed that a former spokesman for
President Bush has been encouraging U.S. newspapers to run
news stories from Iraq written by two combat veterans who
are now embedded reporters in Iraq. The veterans are from
a pro-war group called Vets for Freedom that has ties to the
Republican Party. We speak with John Stauber of the Center
for Media and Democracy.
The Buffalo News has revealed that a former spokesman for
President Bush has been encouraging U.S. newspapers to run
news stories from Iraq written by two combat veterans who
are now embedded reporters in Iraq.
The official -- Taylor Gross -- has pitched the stories as
"balanced and credible viewpoints gained directly from
those closest to and most affected by the Iraq War."
But it turns out the veterans are from a pro-war group called
Vets for Freedom that has ties to the Republican Party.
The group is now running website hosted by a firm that previously
worked for the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign and the
Republican National Committee.
Questions about ties between Vets for Freedom and the Republican
party were first raised by the group PR Watch and citizen
journalists at PR Watch's website SourceWatch.
- John Stauber, Executive Director of the Center
for Media and Democracy and co-editor of the publication
PR Watch. He has co-authored
several books including "Weapons of Mass Deception:
The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq."
Lawmakers, Regulators Face Key Decisions on Future
of Media Ownership, Internet, Public Access, Low Power Radio
Lawmakers and regulators in Washington are in the midst
of making a number of decisions that could affect the nation's
media ownership laws, the future of the Internet, public access
television and the expansion of low power FM radio stations.
We speak with Hannah Sassaman of the Prometheus Radio Project
which successfully sued the FCC three years ago in an effort
to block the new media ownership rule changes. [includes rush
transcript]
Lawmakers and regulators in Washington are in the midst
of making a number of decisions that could affect the nation's
media ownership laws, the future of the Internet, public access
television and the expansion of low power FM radio stations.
In the Senate, the Commerce Committee is expected to vote
this week on a major telecommunications bill that involves
both net neutrality as well as the expansion of low power
FM radio stations.
Meanwhile the Federal Communications Commission has reopened
discussions on rewriting the nation's rules that limit how
many newspapers and radio and TV stations a single company
can own in a city.
The Republican-led FCC tried to weaken the ownership laws
in 2003 but was forced to back down following mass opposition
from citizens and media advocacy groups.
- Hannah Sassaman, program director of the Prometheus
Radio Project. Prometheus successfully sued the FCC
three years ago in an effort to block the new media ownership
rule changes.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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