In case you missed it, there was a big ‘scoop’ on Saturday evening from CNET, purporting to report that Rep. Jerry Nadler revealed that he’d been told in a classified briefing that NSA analysts could choose to listen to domestic phone calls simply on the basis of their decision that they were worth listening to – no warrant, no national security letter.
It caused a minor explosion Saturday evening but pretty quickly people noticed that it was based on a highly ambiguous exchange between Nadler and FBI Director Robert Mueller and that the reporter hadn’t even talked to Nadler to confirm what he meant. But late Saturday evening, the story seemed increasingly shaky and Sunday morning Nadler released a statement appearing to invalidate the whole thing. Yet, CNET tried to brazen it out with a small change to the headline and an update at the end of the article basically pretending that the article still held up.
If you were enjoying your Father’s Day weekend and missed the whole thing, good for you. Another example of how sloppy journalism can misinform, especially when reporters refuse to own up to their mistakes.
