1. ABC Touts "Exclusive" with "Whistleblower" Behind NYT's "Spying"
ABC led Tuesday's World News Tonight by trumpeting an "exclusive" story from Brian Ross -- an interview with one of the sources for the New York Times story which disclosed an ongoing secret operation to monitor communication by people inside the U.S. with terror suspect abroad. "Tonight, the whistleblower who spent decades spying for the U.S.," co-anchor Bob Woodruff teased before co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas joined in with an ominous-sounding warning: "He says millions of American may have been monitored illegally. An ABC News 'Exclusive.'" Three times ABC championed Russ Tice as a "whistleblower," never once suggesting less pure motives. Brian Ross passed along how "Tice told ABC News he was one of the Times' dozen anonymous sources" for the "story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants." But instead of showing any concern for the disregard of secrecy, as the two sat in an eerily dark setting, Ross empathized with Tice's plight: "Are you concerned you could be prosecuted and sent to prison for talking to the New York Times and talking to us today?" Not until the very end of the story did Ross note how "Tice lost his job last May after the NSA revoked his security clearances citing psychological concerns." Later, on Nightline, Cynthia McFadden hailed Tice's "candor" and, in the slightly longer interview excerpt, Ross did press Tice about "what's wrong with" listening in when it could "stop terror attacks?"

2. Norah O'Donnell's Myths on Wage Gap Dispelled by Kate O'Beirne
On Monday's Hardball on MSNBC, Norah O'Donnell, subbing for Chris Matthews, threw out the old feminist canards about the gender and wage gaps at National Review's Kate O'Beirne. During her description of her new book, Women Who Make the World Worse, O'Beirne called the gender gap, "phony," to which O'Donnell blurted: "But there is a gender gap! There is a gender gap that exists, that, that there are more women who vote for Democrats. This President tried to court the so-called security moms. There is a gender gap. Men and women vote differently." Then later in the interview O'Donnell brought up the wage gap: "But don't you think feminists, to some degree, have at least brought attention to issues like inequity in health care. That there isn't amount the same amount of research on women as men. That they brought attention to the issue that women are still paid less than men." O'Beirne adroitly dispelled the myths.

ABC Touts "Exclusive" with "Whistleblower"
Behind NYT's "Spying"

     ABC led Tuesday's World News Tonight by trumpeting an "exclusive" story from Brian Ross -- an interview with one of the sources for the December 16 New York Times story which disclosed an ongoing secret operation to monitor communication by people inside the U.S. with terror suspect abroad. "Tonight, the whistleblower who spent decades spying for the U.S.," co-anchor Bob Woodruff teased before co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas joined in with an ominous-sounding warning: "He says millions of American may have been monitored illegally. An ABC News 'Exclusive.'" Three times ABC championed the man as a "whistleblower," never once suggesting less pure motives, and Ross didn't raise any questions about damage the leak may have caused.

     Woodruff announced: "Targeted by the probe," of who leaked the secret knowledge, "is a former NSA official who now wants to tell Congress exactly what he knows about the surveillance program." Ross identified him as Russ Tice and relayed how "Tice now says some of those secret black world programs run by the NSA were operated in ways that violated the law." Ross also passed along how "Tice told ABC News he was one of the Times' dozen anonymous sources" for the "story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants." But instead of showing any concern for the disregard of secrecy, as the two sat in an eerily dark setting, Ross empathized with Tice's plight: "Are you concerned you could be prosecuted and sent to prison for talking to the New York Times and talking to us today?" Not until the very end of the story did Ross note how "Tice lost his job last May after the NSA revoked his security clearances citing psychological concerns." So, he may just be a disgruntled ex-employee with an axe to grind, not a heroic "whistleblower."

     Cynthia McFadden introduced the Nightline version of the Ross story by hailing Tice's "candor," as she fretted about how he "may now face a government investigation" because of it. In the slightly longer piece, Tice insisted he did not divulge any classified information to the New York Times and Ross noted how Tice reported that intercepting al Qaeda communication has been "a huge success," so he pressed Tice about "what's wrong with" the effort to listen in when it could "stop terror attacks?"

     [This item was posted Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. To share your comments, go to: newsbusters.org ]

     (The MRC's Tim Graham alerted me to how a January 5 Washington Times story by Bill Gertz, "NSA whistleblower asks to testify," reported on Tice's desire to testify before Congress. See: www.washtimes.com )

     The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video for the January 10 World News Tonight story:

     Bob Woodruff: "Good evening, everyone. We begin tonight with exclusive new information about the National Security Agency spying controversy and one of the men who knows a great deal about it. The New York Times first reported last month that the Bush administration had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on certain U.S. citizens without a warrant. The Justice Department has launched an investigation into who leaked that information. One of the people who believes he is being targeted by the probe is a former NSA official who now wants to tell Congress exactly what he knows about the surveillance program. ABC's chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross joins us now with this exclusive report. Brian?"

     Brian Ross: "Bob, the man you're about to hear is a former NSA insider who is now a whistleblower, eager to tell Congress all he knows and to tell us what he can without revealing any classified secrets. For the last 20 years, Russ Tice has worked in the shadows helping the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world."
     Russ Tice, in session with Ross in a dimly-lit room: "I specialize in what's called special access programs. We call them black world programs in our operations."
     Ross: "Tice now says some of those secret black world programs run by the NSA were operated in ways that violated the law."
     Tice: "It's drummed into your head that you will not spy against Americans."
     Ross: "But you're saying you saw things and are aware of things that were done unlawfully at the NSA."
     Tice: "I believe so, yes."
     Ross: "Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they're switched through centers like this one in New York and search for key words or phrases that terrorists might use."
     Tice: "If you pick the word jihad out of a conversation, the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system."
     Ross: "Tice says intelligence analysts then develop graphs called spider webs, like these, linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or thousands more."
     Tice: "What associations of numbers does that number call and you make little spiders from each one of those points to determine, you know, where those communications are going."
     Ross: "President Bush has admitted he gave orders allowing the NSA to eavesdrop on a small number of Americans without court warrants."
     George W. Bush at a military base on New Year's weekend: "It's a vital, necessary program."
     Ross: "But Tice says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs was used."
     Tice: "That would mean for most Americans that if they conducted or, you know, placed overseas communications, more than likely they were sucked into that vacuum."
     Ross: "Tice surfaced as a whistleblower on the same day the New York Times broke the story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants. Tice told ABC News he was one of the Times' dozen anonymous sources."
     Ross to Tice: "Are you concerned you could be prosecuted and sent to prison for talking to the New York Times and talking to us today?"
     Tice: "As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried."
     Ross, at the anchor desk: "Tice lost his job last May after the NSA revoked his security clearances citing psychological concerns. Nevertheless, the NSA is very concerned. In this letter sent to Tice today, the NSA said he should not testify before Congress because, Bob, none of the staff members on Capitol Hill are classified secret enough to hear what he has to say."
     Woodruff: "The heat is on. All right, thank you, Brian. Brian Ross tonight."

     Woodruff went on to plug more, on Tuesday's Nightline, from Ross on the same story.

     ABCNews.com has posted a version of the Ross story, "NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying: Former Employee Admits to Being a New York Times Source." See: abcnews.go.com

     Tri-anchor Cynthia McFadden teased the Tuesday Nightline, "Tonight on Nightline: The insider. He blew the whistle on the government's secret eavesdropping program. Now he says millions of Americans were spied on. An ABC News 'exclusive.'"

     Setting up the lead story from Ross, McFadden backtracked from how million of Americans "were" spied on to how it "may have" happened: "We're learning much more tonight about the government's secret program to eavesdrop on the U.S. It may have involved spying on millions of Americans, not just a few highly suspicious characters. That's according to the whistleblower, who speaks exclusively to ABC News tonight. A man who may now face a government investigation for his candor."

     The two parts of the Nightline version of the Ross story which did not air on World News Tonight:

     # Brian Ross: "Did you reveal to the New York Times any classified information?"
     Tice: "No, no. I've not told them anything classified."
     Ross: "But you have talked with them?"
     Tice: "I've talked with them, yes."
     Ross: "Do you regret doing that?"
     Tice: "No, I don't regret that at all. I'm bringing out some things that need to be addressed. We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed."

     # Ross: "Intercepting the conversations and communications between Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda deputies and followers around the world, including in the U.S., has been a high priority since the 9/11 attacks and a huge success, according to Tice."
     Ross to Tice: "Wouldn't that potentially save American lives, stop terror attacks?"
     Tice: "Sure, yeah. It potentially could."
     Ross: "So what's wrong with that?"
     Tice: "If we basically come to the conclusion that we don't mind spying on millions of Americans to find, you know, a few bad eggs or some terrorists, then -- and that's the consensus, then okay. But I think you have to pretty much re-write the bill of rights and change the laws around to adjust for that."

Norah O'Donnell's Myths on Wage Gap Dispelled
by Kate O'Beirne

     On Monday's Hardball on MSNBC, Norah O'Donnell, subbing for Chris Matthews, threw out the old feminist canards about the gender and wage gaps at National Review's Kate O'Beirne. During her description of her new book, Women Who Make the World Worse, O'Beirne called the gender gap, "phony," to which O'Donnell blurted: "But there is a gender gap! There is a gender gap that exists, that, that there are more women who vote for Democrats. This President tried to court the so-called security moms. There is a gender gap. Men and women vote differently." Then later in the interview O'Donnell brought up the wage gap: "But don't you think feminists, to some degree, have at least brought attention to issues like inequity in health care. That there isn't amount the same amount of research on women as men. That they brought attention to the issue that women are still paid less than men." O'Beirne adroitly dispelled the myths.

     [This item, by the MRC's Geoff Dickens, was posted Tuesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. To post your comments, go to: newsbusters.org ]

     The exchange on the January 9 Hardball:

     Norah O'Donnell: "And we are back with a very fun segment. Kate O'Beirne is the Washington Editor of the National Review and the author of Women Who Make the World Worse: And How Their Radical Feminist Assault is Ruining our Schools, Families, Military and Sports. Thank you, Kate for coming here."
     Kate O'Beirne: "Thank you Norah."
     O'Donnell: "So who are these women who make the world worse? Give me the roster."
     Kate O'Beirne: "They, well I do name names. I find you have to name names because my feminist friends deny that they stand for certain things. And I quote and name mainstream, celebrated feminists, not marginalized figures. They're the kind of women who claim that they don't, and haven't, haven't denigrated marriage and motherhood. Yes, they do. They're the kind of woman who claim they're not hostile to men. They're hostile to men and little boys because they're men in the, in the offing. They're the kind of woman we don't pay enough attention to. Too many people think feminism is a spent force. That's so seventies. They don't realize how influential the feminist agenda is. The feminist ideology is in our schools, on our campuses. We certainly saw that with the trouble Larry Summers at Harvard got into. Boy, was that brutal. When he said very unremarkable things at an academic conference and we saw what a grip Harvard is into the feminists. Enormously influential on Capitol Hill. That won't come as a surprise to you. They're the kind of women who have hyped the phony gender gap in politics to intimidate politicians into thinking that they represent American women. We're gonna see that on display with, with the women's groups opposing Sam Alito."
     O'Donnell: "But there is a gender gap. There is a gender gap that exists, that, that there are more women who vote for Democrats. This President tried to court the so-called security moms. There is a gender gap. Men and women vote differently."
     O'Beirne: "The way the women's groups hype it, which intimidates politicians, is by pretending it's owing to a monolithic sort of vote on the part of women. You recognize because you cover politics, that's simply not the case. John Kerry, yes, he carried overall women by three points. He lost white women by 11 points. He lost married women with no college education by 16 points. There is no monolithic women's vote and there is no view of monolithic so-called women's issues."
     O'Donnell: "So your main dig is that feminism has led to this belief that all women want the same thing. Which is that we want a family and a career. We all want the right to have an abortion. We all want equal pay. And that has been a bad thing."
     O'Beirne: "Well, they profess, it's been a bad thing that they get away with claiming that's what all American women want. Because it has fueled their success. They have persuaded an awful lot of people that those are the demands of American women across the board."
     O'Donnell: "But don't you think feminists, to some degree, have at least brought attention to issues like inequity in health care. That there isn't amount the same amount of research on women as men. That they brought attention to the issue that women are still paid less than men."
     O'Beirne: "Norah, Norah, Norah."
     O'Donnell: "Kate, Kate, Kate."
     O'Beirne: "You are, you are so bright. This, this is why my chapter on the phony pay gap is so important. They get a lot of mileage out of the fact, they claim, that women work for 76 cents on the dollar. Think about that for a minute. If a woman with the same education level, skills, and experience would work for 76 cents to a man's dollar, who would ever hire a man? There is no discriminatory wage gap. Being a woman in America is not in conflict at all with having a very successful career. Now, being the kind of devoted mother and wife some women freely choose to be does conflict with many of the demands of a career. Never married, college educated women make more than never married college educated men. But they have gotten such mileage out of the phony gender gap. The kind of women who promote that in order to paint America as a discriminatory country with respect to women are the kind of women I name in my book."

     For Amazon's page for O'Beirne's book, Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports, go to: www.amazon.com

-- Brent Baker

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