If you read one Twitter thread today, this should probably be it.
Ever since it was revealed that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign via warrants, national security letters, and human informants, media figures everywhere have started absolutely losing their minds. When AG Bill Barr used the term “spying” in a description of what happened before the Senate, they went absolutely apoplectic with their hottest “ACCCKSHULLY” takes. You see, we are supposed to call it “lawful surveillance” now because it sounds less sinister.
A piece over at Hotair had this take this morning in regards to using the term “spying” and some nonsense James Comey said.
But he has a point about the weirdness of Barr’s testimony a few days ago. The term “spying” does come loaded with certain assumptions, foremost that the surveillance to which it refers is unlawful.
With all due respect to Allahpundit (the author of said piece), that has never been the general assumption made when using the term spying. At least not since the Cold War era.
How do I know? Because it was the media who actually mainstreamed the use of the term spying to describe lawful surveillance of U.S. citizens, mostly to go after the Bush administration.
The Federalist’s Sean Davis does an absolute takedown on this issue with one of the best Twitter compilations I’ve ever seen.
When Bush did it, not only was it spying, it was the kind of spying that needed to be banned. pic.twitter.com/AsTo8duvkA
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 12, 2019
Hilariously, The New York Times actually specifically referenced “surveillance by the federal government” as being spying, which they now claim are two separate things.
It's striking how consistent the @nytimes was in its use of the term "spying" prior to the Obama administration's efforts to aggressively spy on the Trump campaign. pic.twitter.com/dBuUS62Seg
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 12, 2019
It's only warantless domestic spying when Republicans do it. When Obama does it, it's merely the utilization of national security letters to avoid court oversight of surreptitious domestic electronic surveillance of the communications of private U.S. citizens. pic.twitter.com/mFug1blKru
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 12, 2019
'Member that time CNN referred to FBI agents secretly collecting communications of American citizens as spying? And 'member how there was so much spying via video games that the FBI worried it might be accidentally spying on its own agents? I 'member. pic.twitter.com/k3AaILlCaM
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 12, 2019
CNN’s Chris Cillizza tried to get in on the act and Sean took him to the cleaners as well.
The prosecutor could have said "deliberate and forced cessation of another individual's life without legal justification."
Instead, he said "murder." https://t.co/qFqAJUvnJ9
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 12, 2019
My word, when Sean Davis takes you down, he takes you all the way down.
If you go to his Twitter feed, he’s still going.
When it’s time to attack former President Bush, domestic surveillance is simply called spying. When it’s time to defend the Obama administration, don’t you dare call domestic surveillance spying. Makes sense, right?
The media have this odd way of moving the goalposts on verbiage depending on who’s in office. It’s almost like they are simply the political arm of a certain unnamed major party. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being cynical.
I’m not even sure the media realize what a parody of themselves they’ve become.
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