Now that whistleblower Russell Tice revealed to Keith Olberman the pervasive spying and metadata collection of journalists, I predict that the establishment journalists in Washington will declare themselves "shocked and stunned" that they were targeted by the NSA and extra legal entities.
Of course, many of these Traditional Media types will be outraged that the government spied on them — as if this is something that only happens to OTHER PEOPLE tm. Moreover, the opposition from this group (journalists) about the eavesdropping will be much larger and more organized than the opposition to IMO to the far worse crime of torture.
Clearly, spying on groups or individuals without a LEGALLY obtained FISA warrant is illegal, unconstitutional, and UN-American. Spying on citizens makes us no better than the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, or any other third rate dictatorship that is the most recent enemy de jour like Venezuela or Iran.
The ironic thing about Tice's revelation is that it is not surprising in the least given the lawlessness of the Bush Junta (if you're collecting info on me - collect this!) Previous whistleblowers from AT & T and other telecoms suggested that this was a vast collection of information — albeit 99.999999999% worthless, which begs the question, "why?".
Answer: because they can. With useful idiots like Jay Rockefeller, Jane Harman, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi, Democrat enablers capitulated on virtually every illegal and immoral act of the Bush Junta.
The startling ease in which they rolled over made Neville Chamberlain seem resolute in comparison. This leads to a new question, were those Democratic leaders blackmailed into voting lock step with the Bush Junta?
The Administration admitted that prior to the withdrawn UN Resolution to attack Iraq in 2003 it was spying on the UN Missions of various African nations that sat on the UN Security Council.
In 2005, the Administration admitted that it spied on "terrorists" and monitored calls overseas. This year, we learned that the listening in was, in large part, eavesdropping on servicemen and women talking to their families stateside. Really classy, but that was the Bush Junta.
The question is, what will President Obama (that is so cool to say!) and AG Eric Holder do about it?
My prediction is that because journalists themselves were targeted, a public relations offensive will be mounted by the same journalists for the Department of Justice to investigate. Now this is the same DoJ that will probably not prosecute anyone for war crimes for torturing at the behest of Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Alberto Vo5, Mukasey, etc.
To paraphrase Michael Madsen from Reservoir Dogs
Are you going to bark all day little doggie (DoJ, Congress, etc) or are you going to bite?