Spying on the Press

The folks at Hewlett-Packard don't exactly hold journalists in high regard.

Can you believe the pathetic details that are dribbling out about the computer giant's leak investigation? It sounds like the Nixon White House plumbers were in charge.

The burgeoning scandal has already toppled the chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, and now we find out that the CEO, Mark Hurd, approved a sting operation against a reporter?

Who did these folks think they were, the FBI? What utter contempt for the fourth estate.

It was bad enough when they hired private eyes who used a shady technique called "pretexting" to obtain the phone records of one director and, according to press accounts, some journalists. But the batch of e-mails published yesterday by The Washington Post shows that the CEO, Mark Hurd, approved an elaborate sting against a reporter for CNet. And the Wall Street Journal reports that one of its reporters was followed for months.

It sounds like a bad B movie.

Top HP officials created a bogus tipster, "Jacob," to suck up to CNet's Dawn Kawamoto, send her an e-mail with a "tracer" in it and watch who she forwarded it to. One Hewlett executive wrote, "I think we have to figure out who Jacob is, weak, strong, vindictive, a Bill and Dave fan, possibly lower level employee . . . will dictate the tone of the e-mail."

The public would surely be outraged against such snooping against journalists -- that is, if it didn't hold journalists in such minimum high regard.

Some online buzz about this Post column by David Broder , who pleads for a coalition of the center in unusually opinionated (for him) language:

"Bush was elected twice, over Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry, whose know-it-all arrogance rankled Midwesterners such as myself. The country thought Bush was a pleasant, down-to-earth guy who would not rock the boat. Instead, swayed by some inner impulse or the influence of Dick Cheney, he has proved to be lawless and reckless. He started a war he cannot finish, drove the government into debt and repeatedly defied the Constitution.

"Now, however, you can see the independence party forming -- on both sides of the aisle. They are mobilizing to resist not only Bush but also the extremist elements in American society -- the vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left and the doctrinaire religious extremists on the right who would convert their faith into a whipping post for their opponents.

"The center is beginning to fight back. Michael Bloomberg, the Republican mayor of New York, is holding a fundraiser for Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat running as an independent against the bloggers' favorite, Ned Lamont. His election is important, as is Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee's in Rhode Island, because both would signal that independence is a virtue to be rewarded."