Posted on 07/20/2011 3:11:46 PM PDT by Syncro
Read More »MEDIA MOGUL CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE MURDOCH
July 20, 2011In December 1996, a Florida couple, John and Alice Martin, who sounded suspiciously like union goons, claimed to have inadvertently tapped into a phone conversation between then House Speaker Newt Gingrich and House Republican leadership.
According to these Democratic and union activists, they were just driving around with a police scanner in their car, picked up a random phone conversation and said to themselves, "Wait a minute! I could swear that's Dick Armey's voice!"
Luckily, they also had a tape recorder and cassette in their car, so they proceeded to illegally record the intercepted conversation and then turned the tape over to Democratic Rep. James McDermott -- the top Democrat on the Ethics Committee that was at that very moment investigating Gingrich.
Although they swore they had no idea that what they were doing was a crime, in their cover letter to McDermott, they requested immunity -- just as you probably do whenever you write somebody a letter. (They later pleaded guilty to a crime under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.)
McDermott promptly turned the tape over to The New York Times and other newspapers. The Times' headline on the story, "Gingrich Is Heard Urging Tactics in Ethics Case," might as well have been titled: "Tape Shows Gingrich Conspiring to Act Within the Law."
John Boehner, one of the participants in the Gingrich call, sued McDermott for violating his First Amendment rights, which resulted in a court ordering McDermott to pay Boehner more than $1 million.
And yet, more than a dozen news organizations, many of the same ones demanding the death penalty for Rupert Murdoch right now, filed amicus briefs defending McDermott's distribution of the pirated tape.
Needless to say, the Times ferociously defended its own use of the hacked phone call, arguing that it would be unconstitutional to punish the publication of information, no matter how obtained.
bflr
Let me know if you'd like to be added to the Ann Coulter ping list.
Did Communist Jim McDermott EVER pay Boehner the MILLION he was ordered to pay? Doubt it.
Hi Newbie.....there is NO evidence of any wrongdoing here in the US.......NONE.
You misspelled troll.
Ann is off my reading list since she has gone completely insane. She was on Hannity last night defending her friendship with Maher, refused to say anything bad about a close friend.
Still pimping for Cristy and defending the Mitchell sell out. She has caught Barry Goldwater disease way to young. Another example of a Christain that seems to be conflicted.
Maher is a disgusting sub human.
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