Reporting Terrorists

And speaking of “Is it sham or is it ignorance”, what about the idea of the Bush Admin spying on journalists?  We’re talking about people who insist that the MSM aids terrorists and America’s enemies.  Doesn’t it just make sense that we should wiretap such people, if the accusations were true?  Hell, I’d support wiretapping journalists if they really were aiding our enemies (though I’d still want them to be legal wiretaps).  Not necessarily that this “aid to terrorists” is intentional, but wouldn’t it make sense to bug their phones, just to make sure that it’s not intentional?  I’m not saying I agree with that, but if you take their arguments seriously, that is a natural conclusion.  Sure, the Bush Admin never directly said these things against journalists, but they do quietly imply it and many rightwing sources explicitly state it.  

Again, I’ve always thought the rightwing talk of traitorous reporters was part of a sham to keep them from reporting negative things about the GOP; but what if they really believe that crap to be true?  And if we take them seriously, should we have any doubts that they’d bug the press?  Or that they’d bomb Al Jazeera?  And again, which is worse, that they’d attempt to manipulate and potentially destroy American journalism and dissenting speech, for political gain; or that they’d really believe that nonsense?  Either we take them seriously or we don’t; but it’s scary in either case.