Both NBC and CBS led their Thursday morning shows with news that the
Obama administration has secretly obtained the phone records of millions
of Americans, but ABC's Good Morning America started its show reporting on Tropical Storm Andrea in Florida instead.
Overall, Thursday's two hour-long GMA spent less than three
minutes total on the phone tracking story, giving over five times more
coverage to the attempted suicide of Michael Jackson's daughter Paris.
Back in 2006, however, ABC showed far more scrutiny to a similar story
of the Bush administration tracking phone calls.
When news broke in May of 2006 of the Bush administration secretly getting U.S. phone records, the May 11th GMA led with the story [1]
and ran two lead segments, and added a third report in the second hour
of the show. Anchor Diane Sawyer touted the "bombshell" and "seismic"
news and harped on how the phone tracking would personally affect GMA's
viewers.
"What are the odds that every person watching this show this morning
has had the records of their phone calls turned over to the government?"
Sawyer asked USA Today reporter Leslie Cauley. Sawyer also
challenged the legality of the tracking: "Is it legal because aren't
there laws on the books preventing the disclosure of any of this private
information?"
Thursday's GMA was more subdued, refraining from asking
questions of legality and hyping the personal consequences of the Obama
administration's surveillance. The show simply provided statements from
both the administration and opponents of the policy, while still hailing
the news as "stunning."
"[T]he White House may be defending it right now but there's already
been a bipartisan outcry," noted co-host George Stephanopoulos.
Below is a transcript of the segments that aired on Good Morning America on May 6:
[7:06 a.m. EDT]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Now to that stunning report that the National
Security Agency has been collecting phone records from millions of
Americans under a top secret court order. The Guardian broke
the story and ABC's chief White House correspondent Jon Karl has been
tracking it through the night. And Jon, this is a blanket order. Every
Verizon call, both phone numbers, time and length.
JONATHAN KARL, ABC News chief White House correspondent: That's right, George. This top secret order which was obtained by The Guardian
was requested by the FBI on April 25th. That's just ten days after the
Boston Marathon bombing and it covers the phone records of millions of
Americans. And while the White House is not directly confirming this
story, they are defending this massive collection of data that it
describes, a senior White House official telling me just a short while
ago, quote, "information of the sort described in the Guardian
article has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist
threats to the United States as it allows counterterrorism personnel to
discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact
with other persons who may be engaged terrorist activities, particularly
in the United States."
Now this official makes two other points, George. First of all, this
order does not allow the government to listen in to those phone calls,
only to look at their duration, their length and who is calling who. And
the second point they make is that key members of Congress were aware
of this.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They may be and the White House may be defending it right now but there's already been a bipartisan outcry.
KARL: That's right. First of all, you have civil liberty groups
completely outraged by this. The ACLU calling it a massive invasion of
privacy. And Al Gore, former Vice President Al Gore, look what he
tweeted last night after this story broke. "In a digital era, privacy
must be a priority. Is it just me or is secret blanket surveillance
obscenely outrageous?" So very strong words of objections coming from
the former Democratic Vice President Al Gore.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Sure, and I don't think he's going to be alone. Okay Jon, thanks very much.
[8:02]
JOSH ELLIOT: We're going to begin with an explosive new report. The
government collecting the phone records of 100 million Americans. They
are all Verizon customers, and the British newspaper The Guardian
says those records are being seized by the National Security Agency
under a secret court order granted in mid-April. No word why, but that
was just after the Boston Marathon bombing. Now although the calls
aren't being listened to, the ACLU calls it a massive invasion of
privacy. While not confirming the seizure of records, an Obama
administration official this morning called the phone records, and I
quote, "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist
threats." End quote.