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| Ann Althouse: "Trust us. We're from the New York Times" |
| 2006-07-01 |
| The two editors -- Dean Baquet [of the LAT] and Bill Keller [NYT] -- rely heavily on the idea that government officials shouldn't have the final say over what gets out and what remains secret. Citizens need to be able to evaluate these officials, who can't be trusted controlling the flow of information. As Baquet and Keller put it: "They want us to protect their secrets, and they want us to trumpet their successes." Government officials are biased toward suppressing things that make them look bad, and the press needs to bring out the full story, so that citizens can exercise the independent judgment that is crucial to democracy. But the recently revealed secrets -- about the surveillance of telephone call patterns and financial transactions -- were not cases of government suppressing failures. These ongoing programs were successful, and revealing the secrets impaired the operation of very significant efforts in the war on terrorism. I realize that there are arguments that people need to know about successes that are subject to controversy: the telephone surveillance program is attacked as an illegal invasion of privacy. Here, Baquet and Keller have written a lengthy defense of their behavior, behavior that they know has been severely criticized, even called "treason." Despite the length, the piece seems padded. Look at that last paragraph in the blockquote above. We judge, we weigh, we make judgments. Essentially, trust us. Trust us, because you shouldn't just trust the government. Agreed, but why should we trust you? We look at what you just did and feel mistrustful. What in these generic remarks cures that mistrust? You tell us you really did think about it. Those who abhor what you did will not feel inspired to trust you when you say this is where we ended up when we really thought deeply about it. MORE: Here's a related article in tomorrow's NYT, going into the history of publishing government secrets. It quotes Ben Bradlee's memoir: "Officials often — more often than not, in my experience — use the claim of national security as a smoke screen to cover up their own embarrassment." It's good to remember the problem with trusting the government. It will want to cover up mistakes. But let's also remember that this is not the case with the recent disclosures. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #1 Time to play hardball with these scumbags, and everybody who works for them. So DoJ doesn't think they can justify prosecuting Keller, Lichtblau, Risen, etc. for treason or espionage? Fine. Then GWB needs to issue an executive order stating that NYT reporters, editors and staff will not be granted access to any federal office or installation, anywhere in the world, effective immediately. And Tony, yes, that means that the NYT White House crew gets their passes yanked yesterday, and that they get shot by the Secret Service if they try to enter the WH grounds again. As for NYT personnel in Iraq or Afghanistan - their credentials are invalidated immediately. And they're forcibly escorted out to the other side of the wire, preferably after dark. Not so good being a Western civilian in that situation minus a press pass... |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2006-07-01 17:42 |