Radio talkers who were gathered at the Talkers NY 2013
Conference Thursday blasted the National Security Agency’s surveillance program
collecting the records of phone calls made by millions of Americans as
“disturbing” and “an outrage.”
The disclosure Wednesday, reported by The Guardian, of a
highly classified NSA program to obtain records of telephone calls on the
Verizon network sparked discussion and concern.
“I think it’s an outrage,” Glenn Beck told Politico. “People
need to wake up.”
And most hosts spoke with on Thursday agreed with Beck’s
take. Liberal talker and Fox News contributor Alan Colmes called the NSA’s data
gathering “disturbing,” but said that kind of surveillance of the American
people had its origins in the Bush administration. Even so, he said, the
practice needs to end under Obama.
And Sirius XM’s David Webb, who noted he is a Verizon subscriber,
said it’s important for radio hosts to bring this issue to the attention of
their listeners. The conservative talker added, however, that he and his
colleagues can’t just throw it out as red meat to rile up the base.
Across the aisle, progressive talker Thom Hartmann said he’s
still looking into the story, but “it’s wild overreach if the news reports are
right.”
But, like Colmes, Hartmann said he also wanted to examine
just how much of this surveillance program was a holdover from past
administrations. If it is not, Hartmann said, he’d be “horrified.”
Meanwhile, Sirius XM’s Michael Smerconish — who touts
himself and his program as free from ideological entanglements — took a
different tack on the NSA reveal from many of his colleagues.
“I think it’s going be red meat [for radio talkers]. Because
for this crowd, it will build on the AP, it will build on James Rosen, it will
build on the drones, and all of those things,” Smerconish told Politico.
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