Why Would They Be Hostile?

This week.....more revelations of a degree came out over the NSA and Germany.  So, the basic story is....the NSA guys didn't really just limit themselves to spying on Merkel or the Bundestag folks.  Somewhere down the line.....they decided to go ahead and include the telephone numbers of ministries of finance, economy and agriculture, the German daily newspaper....the Sueddeutsche Zeitung (a left-of-center journalist effort) and two state-run TV news broadcasters.

Getting folks hyped up?  Well....yeah.  Although it's not much of a big crowd for being hyped up.  Maybe one individual out of a hundred.  I'd take a humble guess if you walked down to some bahnhof and questioned a number of folks hanging out....half might remember hearing about the story, and maybe five-percent can remember the majority of the story with its facts.

Frankly, on an average day.....this might rate as a number twenty story if the public had their say.  The state-run TV news folks?  It's usually story number two, behind Greece.  This might be worth discussing, but most Germans just don't care.

Why would Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the state-run TV journalists get hyper?  Well.....you need to sit back and ponder upon this.  Both thrive off government appointees who call up and want to vent or dump some sensitive information.  The CDU folks do it.  The CSU folks do it.  The Greens do it.  The Linke Party members do it.  The SPD Party members do it.   They have some really 'hot' info and want to use it to blame Merkel, France, the UK, or Bush/Obama.   For Sueddeutsche Zeitung reporters and state-run TV journalists to suddenly wake up and realize that calls get noted and might get passed around.....well, that would really unsettle the people who want to vent or dump info to the noted journalists.

What'll happen now?  Well....I'm guessing some folks will dump their current telephone number that they've had for twenty years.....buy some cellphone....and try to let their poor government 'sources' know the new number.

But if you were a government 'source', and now knew that the NSA guys had noted your behavior or information that you'd passed around....you might sit there and wonder if some NY Times reporter would get passed some sensitive data from the US secret 'source' and then a number of German idiot government employees would look stupid.

Yeah.....it's kinda like some tragic Greek opera.  Everyone trying to get the real bad story, and hyping up the blame game.....to then get turned around end up being part of another bad story yourself, and getting some kind of fraudulent blame.

So, the best thing to do, if you were a reporter for the German newspapers or state-run TV empire.....just act hostile and hope that someone notices that you are angry.

Note, the NSA didn't ask for the numbers for BILD, or spy on them.  That's probably a bigger story, if you ask me.  The BILD guys are probably sitting there and wondering how they can get NSA attention and look important like those state-run TV journalists.