Ex CBS Reporter had computer hacked, files planted, software installed by gov...claim in book Stonew

I read this a few days ago and was waiting for someone to post it. Guess we are getting conditioned to the intrusions on reporters. However, I believe if this isn't stopped, we lose all government oversight. Certainly congress is getting nowhere with it.


Cheryl Attkinson is a 5 time emmy winning reporter for CBS until she quit early this year. She has also won the Edward R. Murrow award. Article in the Washington Post gives an excerpt from her book 'Stonewalled' which reads like a spy novel. And yes, we should be very afraid.

On one level, the book is a reminder of all the ways people can mess with you. It’s not just her computers that showed signs of tampering, says Attkisson, who bolted CBS News earlier this year. “[B]y November 2012,” she writes, “there are so many disruptions on my home phone line, I often can’t use it. I call home from my mobile phone and it rings on my end, but not at the house.” More devices on the fritz at Attkisson Central: “My television is misbehaving. It spontaneously jitters, mutes, and freeze-frames,” she writes, noting that the computers, TVs and phone all use Verizon’s FiOS service. At one point, “Jeff” inspects the back of Attkisson’s house and finds a “stray cable” attached to her FiOS box. That cable, he explains, could be used to download data. (Read more: The bizarre tale of Sharyl Attkisson’s spare wire)

Next big moment: Attkisson gets her computer checked out by someone identified as “Number One,” who’s described as a “confidential source inside the government.” A climactic meeting takes place at a McDonald’s outlet at which Attkisson and “Number One” “look around” for possibly suspicious things. Finding nothing, they talk. “First just let me say again I’m shocked. Flabbergasted. All of us are. This is outrageous. Worse than anything Nixon ever did. I wouldn’t have believed something like this could happen in the United States of America.” That’s all coming from “Number One.”

The breaches on Attkisson’s computer, says this source, are coming from a “sophisticated entity that used commercial, nonattributable spyware that’s proprietary to a government agency: either the CIA, FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, or the National Security Agency (NSA).” Attkisson learns from “Number One” that one intrusion was launched from the WiFi at a Ritz Carlton Hotel and the “intruders discovered my Skype account handle, stole the password, activated the audio, and made heavy use of it, presumably as a listening tool.”

To round out the revelations of “Number One,” he informs Attkisson that he’d found three classified documents deep inside her operating system, such that she’d never know they were even there. “Why? To frame me?” Attkisson asks in the book.

Check the first link in the story for a little more
Washingto n Post

This all started with her investigation of Bengazi while at CBS

In the fall of 2013, with White House officials accusing Attkisson of being biased in her Benghazi reporting, the files in her MacBook Air suddenly began deleting at hyperspeed right before her eyes. She videotaped the process and showed it to two computer experts. "They're [blanking] with you," one says. "They're trying to send you a message," says the other. The experts also found evidence that the intruders had tried to cover their tracks by erasing 23 hours of log-in information. The computer melodrama forms the backdrop for the deterioration of Attkisson’s relationship with CBS, where she worked for two decades and won Emmys and other awards. Time and again, she writes, network executives in New York and Washington derailed her stories and treated her like a troublemaker: “They rarely said the story wasn’t going to air. They just let it sit around and ‘loved it’ until it began to stink like old fish.” And Attkisson names names, saying the blocking of her work became virtually routine under CBS anchor Scott Pelley and his then-executive producer, Pat Shevlin. Stories were repeatedly rewritten, watered down and delayed until they never made air, she says. And Attkisson says these weren’t just stories that took on politically charged controversies involving the administration, but also pieces that challenged government waste and corporate conduct, such as the questions surrounding Boeing’s Dreamliner.

More important, she makes a broader case against agenda-driven journalism: “We do stories on food stamps, but only to the extent that we prove the cast that they’re needed, without also examining well-established fraud and abuse. We look at unemployment but only to the extent that we present sympathetic characters showing that benefits should be extended rather than examining, also, the escalating cost and instances of fraud. We cover minimum wage but only to the extent that we help make the case for raising it, without giving much due to the other side, which argued it will have the opposite effect than intended.”

Howard Kurtz Fox News

And just in case this is simply a case of bias

Back in 2008, Attkisson debunked Hillary Clinton's infamous claim that she dodged sniper fire in Bosnia. During the Bush administration, Attkisson won an Emmy for her reporting on shady Republican fundraising. In 2012, she won an Edward R. Murrow award and an Emmy for her reporting on Operation Fast and Furious. She has been equally critical of both political parties in Washington D.C.

townhall.com

Even tho CBS checked out the computer complaint and verified it they either have links to the administration or are afraid of what could befall them.

Reporters like this are the last stand between the government spin and truth. God (or whoever) help us.

Political opponents cause extreme jealousies to emerge.

Some in power will go to great lengths to silence any threats.

a reply to: liveandlearn

She's a true journalist in my mind.

And this Admin despise such people.

originally posted by: TDawgRex
a reply to: liveandlearn

She's a true journalist in my mind.

And this Admin despise such people.

And that is why we should be afraid. Question is, was the order from Obama or our rogue CIA, FBI, DIA or NSA?

I don't doubt any of what she says.

a reply to: liveandlearn

So if she is blaming the Obama Administration for the hacking....
She must be a racist....
Right?
Oh, ok... I will wait for one of the resident Obamaphiles to say it.

a reply to: liveandlearn

This administration has used the full power of Government (IRS, FBI, CIA, NSA, EPA, etc.) as a hammer against dissent. This administration will go down in history as the most corrupt ever (I hope as I certainly never want to see worse in my lifetime).

The spying and now "setting up" Journalist that "get to close" is disgusting. Most of the MSM has already folded and look more like Pravda during the cold war than "free press". This administration has made it clear that if you don't play ball, there will be consequences.

originally posted by: infolurker
a reply to: liveandlearn

This administration has used the full power of Government (IRS, FBI, CIA, NSA, EPA, etc.) as a hammer against dissent. This administration will go down in history as the most corrupt ever (I hope as I certainly never want to see worse in my lifetime).

The spying and now "setting up" Journalist that "get to close" is disgusting. Most of the MSM has already folded and look more like Pravda during the cold war than "free press". This administration has made it clear that if you don't play ball, there will be consequences.

Sometimes I wonder if the threat is why they seem so liberal.

You have James Rosen who was tapped under the espionage act and James Risen of the NYT who now faces the possibility of prison.

from Wikipedia Jeffrey Alexander Sterling was being investigated during the Bush administration. In 2010 he was indicted under the Espionage Act of 1917, one of the few people in US history whose alleged contact with a journalist was punished under espionage law.[6]

Risen was subpoenaed in relation to the case in 2008.[7] He fought the subpoena, and it expired in the summer of 2009.[8] In what the New York Times called "a rare step," the Obama administration renewed the subpoena in 2010.[8] In 2011 Risen wrote a detailed response to the subpoena, describing his reasons for refusing to reveal his sources, the public impact of his work, and his experiences with the Bush administration.[9]

Breitbart is dead as is Michael Hastings, both while pursuing explosive stories. That is a strong message. Cheryl Attikinsson is just the icing.

They will get you one way or the other.

originally posted by: liveandlearn
I read this a few days ago and was waiting for someone to post it. Guess we are getting conditioned to the intrusions on reporters. However, I believe if this isn't stopped, we lose all government oversight. Certainly congress is getting nowhere with it.

Exactly and that's why we are in need of more whistle blowers.

Haven't seen this shared either and have been wondering the same, since I have been following her story since earlier in the year.

Figured and update may have been ignored or ridiculed(She wrote a book, must be working for Koch brothers!, etc.) Though it does need to be brought to attention. Even affiliates(such as Fox) who seems not to be in the hands of this Administration play that way as well. All sides working for one another. Unfortunately in the last year or so with MSM vs Alt media that seems to have been pushed aside with a large focus on Alt media being bad(money hungry, fame loving, shills, sensationalism,...) having people somehow sway towards MSM more. I hope this gets more of the attention it needs throughout.

I wish all reporters and journalists would do what she did maybe we wouldn't be in half the messes this country is in now.I hope she hires a lawyer to blow it wide open and have others come forward this lady has guts, I wish her all the luck as she will need it.

keep us up updated...here's a short video

Shame on all you people who vilified Edward Snowden.

a reply to: liveandlearn
\sarc
If she was really that much of a threat - why didn't they just send a bullet her way?
Obviously paranoid - maybe schizophrenic - authority issues - delusional
That's a big, ongoing investment (waste of tax dollars)...just to scare, intimidate or cripple a reporter.
Why isn't she sitting in a jail cell, like Barrett Browning?
/sarc

On the other hand - it looks to me as if she's thrown in the towel...and chosen to try and capitalize in whatever way possible... Hoping to just - escape the growing adversarial posture of Gov't (vs Anyone trying to impede its Control/Power)...and live the remainder of her life in whatever comfort they will then, allow.

a reply to: dreamingawake

And to your point

All sides working for one another. Unfortunately in the last year or so with MSM vs Alt media that seems to have been pushed aside with a large focus on Alt media being bad(money hungry, fame loving, shills, sensationalism,...) having people somehow sway towards MSM more. I hope this gets more of the attention it needs throughout.

This has gotten no airtime on MSM...not even fox. Seems to me they are all running scared...a warning to all.

originally posted by: WanDash
a reply to: liveandlearn
\sarc
If she was really that much of a threat - why didn't they just send a bullet her way?
Obviously paranoid - maybe schizophrenic - authority issues - delusional
That's a big, ongoing investment (waste of tax dollars)...just to scare, intimidate or cripple a reporter.
Why isn't she sitting in a jail cell, like Barrett Browning?
/sarc

On the other hand - it looks to me as if she's thrown in the towel...and chosen to try and capitalize in whatever way possible... Hoping to just - escape the growing adversarial posture of Gov't (vs Anyone trying to impede its Control/Power)...and live the remainder of her life in whatever comfort they will then, allow.

Perhaps the gov is concerned a 3rd reporter death won't be bought by the public. And she didn't do anything they could charge her with so they let her know they are watching and are ready to frame her, tho they probably didn't think the planted files would be discovered.

Only if these things are aired on major channels will there ever be a chance of reform but seems they are afraid as well.

The questions as to whether Obama ordered such things is pointless and I doubt he is even aware of it, just like many of his predecessors.
The agencies carrying out such actions are a law unto themselves and are also tools of the bankers and industrialists. They will do whatever it takes to destroy people and maintain their power over others. The president, whoever it happens to be and whatever party he represents, is just not relevant at all.

I know they say there are oversight committees, but the members of those are certainly not immune from the same surveillance, setups and blackmailing as any other target.

They all need taken down for the good of all of us.