Phone companies turn over call records: another made-up MSM story?

The MSM got a story completely wrong?!? That never happens! From the originators of said bogus story, USA Today:

Verizon said in a statement Tuesday that it is not providing customer calling information to the National Security Agency.

"One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting," the statement said, "is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers' domestic calls. This is false."

Last Thursday, USA TODAY reported that the NSA has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon, citing people with direct knowledge of the program.
...
On Monday, BellSouth denied providing records to the NSA. AT&T has refused to confirm or deny that it gave records to the NSA. One of the nation's major telecommunication companies, Qwest, declined to participate in the NSA program, the story said, a fact confirmed Friday by Herbert Stern, the lawyer for former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio.

I know I've seen something like this before, where an MSM outlet makes sh#t up just to score political points. I can't quite remember where, though. I'm sure it will come to me, though.

So is this the new standard for the MSM? "No denial equals confirmation"? "Fake but accurate"? Supposedly, USA Today said they contacted Bellsouth a day before the story ran and since Bellsouth didn't dispute the story, figured that it must be true.

As of this moment, USA Today stands by its story. Then again, Mapes and Rather stand by their story, too...to this very day.

Nope...no liberal media bias!