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:: MAX BLACK ::

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --C.S. Lewis

"The Swiss pocket knife of conservative thought on the web..." - Eli Kardrakian

"Bookmark Max and dump your subscription to the newspaper; if you don't have a birdcage you really don't need it anyway..." - Shirley St. James

:: Friday, May 19, 2006 ::

USA Today NSA story imploding?

"I mentioned in the last piece the big telcos were likely to be sued over this and that was one of the reasons for the strong denial. That turned out to be dead on.

"It will be interesting to watch how USA Today responds. When the media goes after Bush with a concocted story, there is no artificial deadline to retract it. In the Rathergate case, CBS never would have retracted the story without the continued blogosphere pressure. This case is different in that it could possibly cost Bellsouth a quarter of a trillion dollars and unlike Bush, they can take action against the paper.

"If the paper stands by the story, they themselves stand to be sued for billions by the telcos or by the shareholders who have seen their share value decrease. If they retract the story they join CBS in being sucked by a bad source.

"The pressure for USA Today to either back up the story or retract it is going to be quite strong. I don't think this one will drag on for weeks like Rathergate. When Bellsouth takes off the gloves, something is going to happen quickly.

"And unless Bellsouth is bluffing, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes may soon have company on the wall of shame."

:: Max 8:13 AM [+] ::
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