Was Christiane Amanpour a target of wiretapping?

[scubamouse]

NBC appears to be investigating the possibility that they did.

This is from an interview that Andrea Mitchell did with James Risen, the NYT reporter who broke the domestic spying story:

Mitchell: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?

Risen: No, I don't. It's not clear to me. That's one of the questions we'll have to look into the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don't know the answer to that

Mitchell: You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?

Risen: No, no I hadn't heard that.

Don't bother looking for this at NBC's web site; the exchange has been removed from the official transcript of the interview.

In response to a question from a site called TV Newser (Link here) , NBC explained why they removed the question:

"Unfortunately this transcript was released prematurely. It was a topic on which we had not completed our reporting, and it was not broadcast on 'NBC Nightly News' nor on any other NBC News program. We removed that section of the transcript so that we may further continue our inquiry."

This has the potential to be huge. As has been discussed here before, Amanpour's husband is Jamie Rubin, former Clinton administration official and advisor to the Kerry campaign. So if somebody bugged her phone, they weren't just bugging her, but potentially him as well.

Can't wait to see how this plays out. Andrea Mitchell didn't pull that question out of thin air!!!

 

[crcormier]

Well, when you say can order secret wiretaps on anyone without a court order, this wouldn't be much of a surprise if it turns out to be true.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

Hmm, according to the now altered transcript, the fellow who literally wrote the book on this states for the record that he has no knowledge of any reporters, much less Amanpour, having their phones tapped. But based on an altered transcript which NBC clearly states was "premature" and never "broadcast", the conclusion derived is "This has the potential to be huge."

As for Andrea not pulling a question out of the air, it wouldn't be the first time a broadcast journalist has pulled stuff out of thin air. Sadly, there are many who refuse to learn from their colleague's errors.

 

[DawnCt1]

Can't wait to see how this plays out. Andrea Mitchell didn't pull that question out of thin air!!!

Can you say Mary Mapes??? See, I knew you could.

 

[scubamouse]

Can you say Mary Mapes??? See, I knew you could.

puh-lease - point to me links where Andrea Mitchell and Mary Mapes have the same agenda.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

No one said anything about an agenda. The point is that some people fail to learn from other's mistakes. It does appear, however, that NBC learned something as they quickly sanitized the online transcript.