CNN is reporting that the NSA did not target correspondent Christiane Amanpour for surveillance, counter to the rumors flying all over the place yesterday (“Amanpour” is still no. 7 in Technorati’s top search terms):

Official: Amanpour, other CNN journalists not targeted for surveillance
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN Thursday that the National Security Agency did not target CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour or any other CNN journalist for surveillance.
NBC raised the allegation in an interview with New York Times reporter James Risen, asking him whether he knew anything about possible surveillance of Amanpour by the NSA. Risen, author of a new book, “State of War: the Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration,” said he had not heard anything about it.
NBC posted a transcript of the interview on the MSNBC.com Web site Wednesday, then quickly removed the page. In a statement posted on the industry weblog TVNewser, the network said the transcript was “released prematurely,” and that reporting would continue.
The interview was not broadcast on any NBC news program, the network said. From National Security Correspondent David Ensor (Posted 8:16 p.m.)

Tom Maguire calls this a “non-denial denial” — it leaves open the possibility that, while Amanpour was not “targeted,” she was incidentally eavesdropped upon in the course of talking to al Qaeda-linked sources. Possibly (although CNN said Amanpour is unaware of any eavesdropping). But even assuming that’s the case, it certainly deflates the “Watergate redux” line the left-wing blogs were running with yesterday.

Meanwhile, there’s a debate going on in Romenesko letters over whether MSNBC crossed an ethical line when it altered the online transcript. NBC has some leeway given that it never broadcast the interview. But NBC didn’t just put the transcript up and then take it down. First, it tried to remove from the transcript only the question that pertained to Amanpour. That’s where I think NBC crossed the line.