USA Today has issued a report admitting that it cannot prove a major part of the NSA wiretapping story that it ran back in May:
USA Today has acknowledged that it cannot prove key elements of a blockbuster May 11 story in which it reported that several telecommunications companies were handing over customer phone records to the National Security Agency.
The May article named AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Corp. and BellSouth Corp. as cooperating with the NSA in compiling an unprecedented database of domestic phone records. Though the NSA was not listening to calls, the spy agency was scouring the records to search for ties to terrorism, the paper said.
(…)
Yesterday, in a lengthy article and accompanying “note to our readers,” the nation’s largest-circulation newspaper said it could not confirm that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the NSA, which is charged with intercepting and analyzing foreign communications to look for possible threats to U.S. national security.
In fact, Verizon and BellSouth both emphatically denied that they had participated in the NSA program after the USA Today story was released.
USA Today stood by much of its initial report, saying it had followed up with lawmakers and intelligence and telecom sources. Yesterday’s article reported: “Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees confirm that the National Security Agency has compiled a massive database of phone call records.”
In the next sentence, the paper wrote: “But some lawmakers also say that cooperation by the nation’s telecommunication companies was not as extensive as first reported by USA Today on May 11
Of course, as The Anchoress points out, they released this clarification on the Friday of what is for many a long holiday weekend. Not exactly a time when alot of Americans will be paying attention. And, Michelle Malkin points out, they didn’t bother to put it on the front page. And Lorie Byrd notes the hypocrisy:
It’s all Bellsouth’s fault for not denying it enough. How much more cowardly can they get? Bellsouth demanded a retraction a over a month ago and when the USAToday does finally print something they blame the victims of their false accusations.
Not a good day for McPaper.
