Keller on Face the Nation this morning:
Mr. KELLER: But, I mean, I don't think this is all politics, I think the administration's a little embarrassed. They--this is the most secretive White House we've had since the Nixon White House, I think, by general acceptance, and I think they're a little embarrassed that they've had so much trouble holding on to their secrets.
SCHIEFFER: One of the more interesting reactions came from your competitor, The Wall Street Journal. Now, they did publish the story after it became known that you were going to publish the story, but they used some very strong language. In fact, I think at one point they said something that you had taken one of the most powerful weapons in the US arsenal and exposed it. What was your reaction to--to the way the Journal reacted?
Mr. KELLER: I think people who should react to The Wall Street Journal editorial are the--are the people over in The Wall Street Journal's newsroom, who must have been cringing with embarrassment to read, kind of, what the people on their opinion pages were saying. Because they wrote that story and although they were not--because they were a little late coming to the story, they were not asked by the administration not to publish.
SCHIEFFER: Well, to the contrary. As I understand it, from the Journal'seditorial, they were actually given the story after it became known that you all had the story. Is that unusual in journalism...
Mr. KELLER: It's--it's...
SCHIEFFER: ...for the government to give somebody else's story to another newspaper?
Mr. KELLER: No, that's not that unusual a tactic. A lot of times when they are aware that one newspaper's going to publish something, they will give it to other papers in hopes that first of all you get the whole story out in onefell swoop, rather than have it trickle out over, over days or weeks, and you also have more of a chance to put your own spin on it.
SCHIEFFER: If you had something to say to people in America on this Fourth of July weekend about all this, what would it be, Mr. Keller?
Mr. KELLER: I guess I would say if you're under the impression that the presss is neutral in this war on terror, or that we're agnostic--and you could get that impression from some of the criticism--that couldn't be more wrong. We have people traveling in the front lines with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We've had people who've been murdered in trying to figure out the terrorist threat. You know, we live in cities that are targets, proven targets, for the terrorists. So we--we're not neutral in this.
Now, if we were to quote Keller like he quotes Bush, the quote would be "We're not neutral in this."
Quite so.