Rachel Maddow and Carl Bernstein

None of the netroot blogs of note have made any comments about this awful interview between Rachel Maddow and Carl Bernstein so I thought I'd say a few words myself. Like for instance, what I think is most notable about Bernstein comments is his requirement that this whistleblower, the former NSA agent Russell Tice, (not a hidden questionable whistleblower like Deep Throat, mind you,) is somehow not to be taken seriously or is basically uninformed about what he is saying or finally that congress was spineless - didn't do it's job, so therefore whatever Mr. Tice's claims should simply be dismissed outright because that isn't a reporters job to do what congress failed to do. Rachel Maddow is no journalist really, so she failed utterly to asked the right questions with this interview. Carl Bernstein is also holding his fellow journalist to a far higher standard then he held himself during the Watergate stories of Ricard Nixon's Presidency.


Russell Tice's report states thus:

Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice, who helped expose the NSA's warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, has now come forward with even more startling allegations. Tice told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday that the programs that spied on Americans were not only much broader than previously acknowledged but specifically targeted journalists.

Now, I would think that any reasonable journalist might be truly alarmed by the claims coming from Mr. Tice, so Mr. Bernstein's indifference is quite shocking, really. If indeed today's journalist are at all interested in protecting their sources as well as themselves in the profession, why then wouldn't they demand to know the truth from the Bush Administration? But oh no, can't have that, unlike Bernstein did with his source, when Deep Throat started talking about the Watergate story way back when journalist used to do their jobs and wanted to find the truth by demanding that the President answer questions, nope, none of type of journalsim now a days. I'm fairly sure that Mr. Tice must be Dana Priest's source for her wiretapping story, so when are we going to throw Dana overboard for not vetting Russell Tice thoroughly the way Bernstein explains it on the Rachel Maddow Show, and before Maddow can jump to any conclusions about the reliability of Russell Tice’s claims?

If congress didn't do it's job, as Bernsteins iterates here in this video, it is only because today's journalist don't do theirs. Anymore don't we need a lawyer like Patrick Fitzgerald to throw a few journalists in jail to get at the facts that today's press members feel no responsibility whatsoever to find. Congress doesn't have a spine because our press members don't have one either, and thus fail to back up any investigation of the Bush Administration that congress might undertake if a press existed that kept the public informed about the truth, which we clearly do not have any longer.

People, the wiretapping story can't get much uglier than it is right now. And, sadly there does not seem to be a single journalist out there that cares enough about the safety of his/her source or his/her own safety to be bothered with Mr. Russell Tice’s alarming news.

I'm also wonder why it is that ever since the Russell Tice came forward with his claims, Salon columnist and Constitutional Lawyer, Glenn Greenwald has not written a word about Tice's admission either? What gives, what gives???