FISA Sell-Out

In the works, even as we speak. D-day has a solid post on the latest episode, complete with Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd throwing down the gauntlet to the Democratic leadership.

Dear Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Chairman Leahy, Chairman Conyers, Chairman Rockefeller and Chairman Reyes,

As you work to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, we urge you to include key protections to safeguard the privacy of law-abiding Americans, and not to include provisions that would grant retroactive immunity to companies that allegedly cooperated in the President’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program.

As related by this letter, the proposed "compromise" is no compromise at all: it merely writes into law everything that Bush and the telecoms want in order to save themselves from public scrutiny of their quite probably illegal activities in spying on American citizens.

D-day also gives a prime example of why the telecoms need to be held accountable, and why consolidation of the holdings in news media is the worst possible idea for a free and independent press. Quoting from this post by Glenn Greenwald:

But the danger of allowing corporations like Comcast to control the content of vital political debates by refusing to broadcast ads that are critical of them or their Congressmen is manifest, and that's particularly true where -- as is the case for Rep. Carney's district -- one company controls the bulk of the important television outlets. In an age where corporate consolidation of our most influential media outlets is increasing rapidly, companies such as Comcast can suppress the expression of political views it dislikes -- or conceal their own illegal behavior -- by censoring any political viewpoints that are contrary to their interests or to the interests of the political figures who receive substantial contributions from them and then serve them. Obviously, that is precisely what Comcast is doing here.

The danger here is so obvious, especially given the history of the past decade, that it shouldn't need to be stated: our so-called "public" media has become a corporate gofer for government interests that serve a select group rather than the American people. That group includes the owners of the corporate media, who certainly can't be expected to put their own political power at risk. As Greenwald puts it:

Just consider the ramifications of Comcast's behavior when engaged in more generally. The debate over whether to immunize telecoms is one of the most vigorously contested in Congress over the last several years. At the heart of that debate lies the illegal behavior of our nation's largest telecoms in allowing spying on their own customers in violation of the law (and reaping substantial profits from their burgeoning relationship with the Government). Yet these same telecoms can then use their control over vital media outlets to prevent citizens from learning about their behavior or having the Congressman who seek to protect them criticized in any way. The threats posed to free debate and an informed citizenry by such venal conduct is substantial and transparent.

This should be a no-brainer for anyone in Congress, and apparently it has been for far too many of them. Unfortunately, they are coming down on the wrong side on this one. My delegation is getting a letter.