[Dean's World] Dave Price: Libby, Hoyt and Kristol: Irony Abounds At The NYT

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Libby, Hoyt and Kristol: Irony Abounds At The NYT
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1200503579.shtml


   Clark Hoyt [1]objects to Bill Kristol's appointment to the NYT op-ed
   page:

     On Fox News Sunday on June 25, 2006, Kristol said, âI think the
     attorney general has an absolute obligation to consider
     prosecutionâ of The New York Times for publishing an article that
     revealed a classified government program to sift the international
     banking transactions of thousands of Americans in a search for
     terrorists.
     Publication of the article was controversial â my predecessor as
     public editor first supported it and then changed his mind â but
     Kristolâs leap to prosecution smacked of intimidation and disregard
     for both the First Amendment and the role of a free press in
     monitoring a government that has a long history of throwing the
     cloak of national security and classification over its activities.

   I am just amazed at the incredible sense of entitlement and outright
   gall in that statement. This sanctimonious chaff is coming from the
   same paper that led the charge for an investigation that jailed
   journalists in order force them to reveal their sources, and
   eventually ended by sentencing Lewis Libby to prison over a leak that
   had little or no national security implications -- and that leak had
   originally come from Richard Armitage, who, inconveniently, wasn't as
   politically juicy a target.
   Where was the "role of a free press" then? Apparently advising
   terrorists how their finances are being tracked is part of the
   public's sacred right to know, but when that "cloak of national
   security" happens to fall over someone aligned with the political
   leanings of the New York Times, then offenders must be vigorously
   prosecuted and "intimidated," even if no real national security
   interests are at stake. They are the deciders, and they speak power to
   truth.

References

   1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/opinion/13pubed.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1