Andrea Mitchell: Domestic spying a choice between civil liberties & safety

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

NBC's Mitchell framed domestic spying as a choice between civil liberties and safety



http://mediamatters.org/items/200512210004

On the December 20 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and on the December 21 broadcast of NBC's Today, NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell framed the debate surrounding revelations that the White House had authorized domestic wiretapping of U.S. citizens as a choice between privacy and civil liberties on the one hand and protection from terrorist attacks on the other. Mitchell's characterization echoed arguments put forth by Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush and forwarded by NBC Today host Katie Couric, as Media Matters for America noted.

During a Hardball segment focusing on Bush's authorization of secret wiretaps of American citizens without court approval, Mitchell asked former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), "What do you think Americans really need to be worried about more? A terror attack or someone going into their hard drive and intercepting their emails?" Similarly, Mitchell began a Today report also focusing on the secret wiretaps by asking rhetorically, "Are Americans willing to give up their privacy to help track down terrorists?" After interviewing former presidential adviser David Gergen, who asserted that the revelations of Bush's wiretapping program would negatively affect the American public's trust in government, Mitchell stated: "But the White House is betting that people are willing to pay any price if they think it will avoid another 9-11."

From the December 20 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MITCHELL: What do you think Americans really need to be worried about more? A terror attack or someone going into their hard drive and intercepting their emails?

GRAHAM: Well, I think they need to be more concerned about the effect of the United States seeing a retreat from our basic values at the same time we are trying to ask the countries from which the terrorists come to adopt principles of democracy and liberty. Wouldn't it be ironic if at the same time, through our initiative, we were able to establish a democracy in Iraq, but we were losing our basic liberties and freedoms here at home?