Telco it like it is

[mdlbear]

Telcos wish to deny mass snooping | The Register

Furthermore, both companies have said they "cannot confirm or deny" that they've got a relationship with the NSA. Now, trust a journo on this one: in the commercial world, and in the political world, whenever a flack can deny something that might be bad for trade, share values, or winning the election, they always deny it. "I cannot confirm or deny" always means, "I cannot deny". There are no exceptions to this rule outside the realm of legal constraints against commenting in any way (gag orders, etc).

The Reg. does a pretty good job of parsing the careful, contorted language that Verizon and BellSouth use in "denying" that they've given anything to the NSA. And I understand the Brooklyn Bridge is up for sale on eBay...

Comments

[tagryn]

The multi-day delay in coming out with denials was deadly for their credibility. OK, with gigantic corporations like this it may have taken days to double-check whether in fact any info was given out, but their P.R. people should have known that every day of silence just cemented firmer in the public's mind that they were guilty. Slow reaction time is many a corporation's Achilles heel. I'm sure there were meetings in each company debating "how should we spin this?" which is what these denials look like now: spin.

To establish innocence, they needed to be out there the next day after the story broke doing rebuttals. That might be unrealistic to ask, but that's how the news cycle works these days.

[mdlbear]

If you look at the wording of their denials -- things like "we don't have a contract..." and "does not provide any government agency unfettered access..." -- it's very clear that they're being careful not to deny what they're actually doing, which I suspect may be even more extensive than the press has dared suggest so far. Reading between the lines, it's pretty clear that they don't have a whole lot of innocence to establish; their only hope at this point is to stall until the press turns its attention to someone else's scandal.

But you already knew that.

[animekid.livejournal.com]

Glad to see an article that points this out...
I suppose I'm in the skeptic mass when we hear those legalise being said or printed here and there..hehe.

Real nice way of putting it \(^_^)/