Sirotablog: "So let's see - what happens when a President gets caught breaking the law, then publicly says he's going to continue breaking the law? Well, in ages past where serious journalism ruled the day, it meant serious media scrutiny (think Watergate) and investigation. Today, it means just another lazy, dishonest he-said/she-said story, as if it doesn't even matter.

Here's the interchange between NBC's Katie Couric and Tim Russert from this morning:

COURIC: Is this going to be a case of a debate by legal analysts and constitutional scholars versus Americans, who say civil liberties are important, but we don't want another September 11?

RUSSERT: Exactly right.

This is it, baby - the penultimate example of American journalism as state-run propaganda machine. In one fell swoop, one of the largest media organizations in the world used one of its most watched television shows to boil down an extraordinary case of illegal presidential abuse of power into just another petty partisan squabble. And in the process, claiming without one shred of evidence that the only people who care that the president illegally trampled the constitution are 'analysts and scholars,' not the American people who 'don't want another September 11' - an assertion that also dishonestly portrays respect for the law as in direct opposition to national security. "