US Sen. Joe Lieberman suggests NYT could be investigated for espionage | Hacker News Reader

US Sen. Joe Lieberman suggests NYT could be investigated for espionage

guardian.co.uk

19 pointsgasull14 comments

[clop clop]

LIEBERMAN: Halt! Hallo! Hallo!

NYT EDITOR: 'Allo! Who is zis?

LIEBERMAN: It is Senator Lieberman, and these are the Members of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Whose castle is this?

NYT EDITOR: This is the castle of our publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.

LIEBERMAN: Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us testimony he can join us in our quest for the Holy Leak.

NYT EDITOR: Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll be very keen... Uh, he's already got one, you see?

LIEBERMAN: What?

LEVIN: He says they've already got one!

LIEBERMAN: Are you sure he's got one?

NYT EDITOR: Oh, yes, it's very nice-a [to other editors] I told him we already got one.

OTHER EDITORS: [Laughing]

I'm starting to think of Lieberman as the new McCarthy.

I think he might be an NUJ stooge - this has been the greatest boost for print journalism since somebody came up with the idea of page 3 mamographs

McCarthy was somewhat right in that the administration, secret services and universities were riddled with Communists.

He may have been wrong about who exactly was a Communist or wrong about his methods, though.

Except that most of the people he actually accused were not Communists.

And, perhaps most importantly, political ideology isn't a crime.

True enough.

Still, I fail to see the similarity between Lieberman and McCarthy in this context.

Accusing NYT of bad citizenship (Lieberman) is similar to accusing people of unAmerican activities (McCarthy).

Calling on companies to withdraw services from Wikileaks (Lieberman) is similar to calling on advertisers to withdraw support from Time magazine (McCarthy).

Overwrought, fear-mongering rhetoric (Lieberman) is similar to overwrought, fear-mongering rhetoric (McCarthy).

>McCarthy was somewhat right in that the administration, secret services and universities were riddled with Communists.

What sort of evidence do you have for this assertion? As I recall, McCarthy's "evidence" was a bunch of baseless accusations made by others who were themselves accused of being Communists. The accused were promised leniency if they would only point out others who were either Communists, or Communist-sympathizers. As one can imagine, this led to a lot of innocent people being accused simply for being associated with another accused person.

Remember the definition of a communist in America is anyone who isn't senator McCarthy.

I'm surprised anyone still listens to the nutjob. I'm even more surprised the Republican Party hasn't welcomed a defection yet.

Meanwhile...

U.S. to host World Press Freedom Day http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1979895

11 points, 42 minutes ago, and it isn't in HN frontpage.

I'm seeing these things happening all the time in HN now.

Flags aren't exactly downvotes, but they push things from the front page. I've seen people in several thread voice that they're growing weary of this issue and think many of the stories submitted on it aren't relevant to HN.

The NYT is Lieberman's stalking horse for Internet control. This false controversy will be whipped up into a frenzy until Lieberman is ready to play his "moderate" card, in which he relents on the NYT and settles for a new law allowing the death penalty for unconnected publishers like Wikileaks. Mission accomplished.

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