Media uncritically aired false and misleading ads attacking Sen. Clinton

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http://mediamatters.org/items/200608180003

In recent days, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NBC News reporters and hosts have re-aired portions of two campaign advertisements by former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, a candidate for the New York Republican U.S. Senate nomination. These reporters failed to inform viewers that Spencer's charges about his potential opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), and claims about warrantless surveillance are misleading and false.

Ad: Clinton "opposes the Patriot Act and the NSA program that helped stop another 9-11"

The first Spencer ad claims that Clinton "opposes the {USA} Patriot Act and the NSA {National Security Agency} program that helped stop another 9-11" -- referring to the alleged terrorist plot to blow up multiple airliners traveling from the United Kingdom to the United States. In fact, Clinton voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 and for the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act in March 2006 and against a filibuster of that bill, although she supported a filibuster of an earlier version of the bill. There are also two inaccuracies in the claim that Clinton "opposes ... the NSA program that helped stop {the alleged British plot}." First, the media have not reported -- nor has the Bush administration asserted -- that U.S. warrantless surveillance of the international communications of U.S. persons played a role in foiling the alleged plot. News reports and statements by the Bush administration have asserted that no person within the United States was directly connected to the purported plot. It is therefore highly speculative to assert that warrantless surveillance of U.S. persons' conversations with terrorist suspects abroad revealed information that "helped stop" the alleged attack. Second, although Clinton has stated her opposition to the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program because it apparently violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), she has expressed support for wiretapping that complies with the law.

No evidence that warrantless wiretapping in U.S. helped stop U.K. plot

Washington Post staff writers Dan Eggen and Spencer S. Hsu reported on August 13 that "ore than 200 FBI agents and scores of analysts and other personnel" undertook "dozens of clandestine surveillance and search operations on individuals with possible links to the London plotters," including "people who had been called or e-mailed by suspects or their relatives and acquaintances." But while Eggen and Hsu reported that the extensive surveillance "produced a noticeable surge in applications for clandestine warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," they did not report that surveillance was conducted without warrants. Similarly, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau reported on August 15 that "the Justice Department sought double or triple the usual rate of court-approved wiretaps to monitor the communications of American suspects" in the plot, reporting nothing about warrantless wiretapping.

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1. Keith was very clear about the lies

in the ads as well as pointing out the absurdity of calling terrorists 'Islamic fasist' - yes, it was spelled that way in the ad.