Sen. Feinstein: Press Must Stop Calling NSA Spying ‘Surveillance’

She Called Them Surveillance in Past Comments

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman and outspoken surveillance enthusiast Dianne Feinstein (D – CA) has demanded today during the committee hearing that the American press stop referring to the NSA surveillance programs as “surveillance programs.”

During the comments, Sen. Feinstein insisted that it was unfair of the media to the telephone surveillance scheme as a “surveillance program” because it “just collects metadata.”

Hilariously enough, Sen. Feinstein has been referring to the surveillance programs as “these surveillance programs” in her own form letters sent to worried constituents defending them for months.

The change in rhetoric appears to reflect the NSA’s own decision to stop talking so much about the program itself and instead angrily attack the media, claiming that American outrage over its privacy violations are simply a product of “irresponsible” media coverage of classified programs.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.