ABC News Comes Under Fire For Iran Report

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Other Guys' Problems

(AP / CBS)

Last night, the lead story on ABC's "World News" was an exclusive report on how the "CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert 'black' operation to destabilize the Iranian government." You can read about it here, and watch it here. Then again, maybe you shouldn't. According to many of the commenters at ABC News' "The Blotter" – around 1,500 at last count – running the report was "traitorous" because it revealed a secret U.S. government action.

Bloggers are all over the story as well: As Lynn Davidson at Newsbusters sarcastically put it, "[w]hy should a country go to the effort of spying on Americans when all they have to do is follow the US media?" She compares this story to one in the New York Times exposing the SWIFT banking transaction database and another in USA Today about an NSA phone call database, both of which came under criticism from those who felt that the programs should not have been made public.

Here's a typical comment attached to the ABC News story: "I can't believe you would report something like this! You should be ashamed of yourselves. Whatever happened to country first? Someone should be thrown in jail. It is irresponsible for news agencies in the time of war to put people's lives in danger!" And that's one of the nicer ones.

Presidential candidates are also getting in on the anti-ABC action. As "The Blotter" itself notes, Tom Tancredo and Mitt Romney criticized the report, with Romney saying he was "shocked to see the ABC News report regarding covert action in Iran."

More Mitt: "The reporting has the potential of jeopardizing our national security. To put it quite plainly, it has the potential of affecting human life, we may never know."

Here's what ABC News said in a statement:

In the six days since we first contacted the CIA and the White House, at no time did they indicate that broadcasting this report would jeopardize lives or operations on the ground. ABC News management gave them the repeated opportunity to make whatever objection they wanted to regarding our report. They chose not to.

It's still too soon to see if this is going to develop into a full blown debate about Journalism Ethics – it depends in large part on whether the White House or CIA suggest that ABC News acted improperly and/or dispute ABC News' account of the interaction over the story. But the Romney comments suggest that this one has a decent chance of making waves beyond the blogosphere.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by ehorsefield May 26, 2007 12:54 PM EDT: Not much reason to post a comment here - but I will anyway.
The comments you get here will be liberals with
their constant hate and disrespect venting their
feelings. No thoughtful or insightful stuff.
The conservatives like myself do not read CBS and
its slanted and biased reporting. You might as well declare your selves "owned" by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
If the bloggers think the White House is using them they are most likely correct - this is a
deliberate disinformation campaign. Why do the
"respected, professional" journalists not see
this?; Reply to this comment


by mattcat25 May 25, 2007 4:25 AM EDT: one would think that since the United States removed Iran's enemy Saddam Hussein from power (by hanging)Iran and the Shiite majority in Iraq would be grateful, and helpful to US involvement. George Bush has managed to make everyone an enemy of the United States.

The Bush Administration and the Republican Party Policy is to keep the United States in Military Conflict indefinitely. $Billions and $billions of Federal Treasury Funds will be redistributed from the American People to support supposed wars to protect the (Republican)American way of life.; Reply to this comment


by skeezix06 May 24, 2007 10:44 AM EDT: Even without the fleet in the Persian Gulf and Bush's repeated saber rattling, why wouldn't the Iranians also be capable of thinking about the near certainty of sabotage and investigating for themselves? Why do we keep making the mistake of thinking our opponents are stupid?

If Bush goes ahead and opens another front on his own personal "war", we should impeach immediately.; Reply to this comment


by brianbwb-2009 May 24, 2007 4:45 AM EDT: sorry about the spelling and punctuation errors, I was in a hurry...; Reply to this comment


by brianbwb-2009 May 24, 2007 4:42 AM EDT: Had the White house "leaked" the info to CBS, you would also have run it, we all know the game. the media has abrogated its responsibility of truth, and chosen to trumpet the neocon's corrupt agenda, this is why we are now losing lives on the basis of lies. The pro war postings on your blogsite only demonstrates the effectiveness of the agitprop machine, even after it is now clear that Bush lied, people still believe that there actually was a real reason for people other than themselves to die in the Middle East. I don't yet see any of the mainstream media calling for personal accountability for the perps of this madness. Folks, innocent people are dying for nothing,on order from our president does this mean nothing to the press
How is ABC treasonous, and Bob Novak not? Or worse yet, how is Bush sending our brethren to war based on lies also not? It is this hypocracy that invalidates most of your bloggers' points.; Reply to this comment


by mattcat25 May 24, 2007 2:58 AM EDT: I agree, this was a deliberate leak of information played by the Bush Whitehouse to assist in the chess match of escalation and a possible military conflict. Negative articles, catch phrases, and public relations are steps this Presidential Administration does very well, but as for actually managing a military campaign to victory they have shown not so much.; Reply to this comment


by memkiller May 23, 2007 8:01 PM EDT: This is a diversion -- so we don't discuss the stupidity of extending the war into Iran until we're there. As before Iraq, the right is positioning so that if Bush decides, the war can begin before we can consider the wisdom of the action. Then once the war started, it will be our patriotic duty to support the effort.

First, you can't tell the driver he's heading off the road. Then, you have to support the decision because you've gone off the cliff, and there's no point in dwelling on it.; Reply to this comment