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New York Times: Traitors to the Republic
What the Times knew, and when it knew it
Maybe it's just us, but when a newspaper comes up with information suggesting that the president of the United States has been engaged in illegal surveillance of American citizens, that's a story that ought to be told. And when the information is available to the newspaper in time for an election -- which is to say, in time for the American people to incorporate it into their thinking about whether to reelect said president -- well, it seems to us that the newspaper has a special obligation to get it into print promptly.
But then, we're not the New York Times.
When the Times reported on Dec. 15, 2005, that George W. Bush had authorized a plan for warrantless spying on American citizens, we -- and a lot of other people -- noticed a circumspect little sentence deep in the story. "After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns," James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wrote, "the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting."
Did a year mean "365 days", or did it mean "about 365 days"? And if it was the latter, did it mean that the Times knew about the warrantless wiretapping before the presidential election in November 2004? We put that question to Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis at the time, but she never answered it. The Times' public editor, Byron Calame, pursued the question with the Times' executive editor, Bill Keller, but he declined to comment, too.
To his credit, Calame never gave up. Troubled by what seemed to be shifting language about the delay -- the initial story and a statement issued over Keller's name said the paper had held the story for "a year," but Keller later seemed to acknowledge implicitly that the delay had been longer -- Calame kept asking for details, and Keller has now provided them: Drafts of the article were written weeks before the presidential election, Keller says, and "the climactic discussion about whether to publish was right on the eve of the election."
Maybe it's just us, but when a newspaper comes up with information suggesting that the president of the United States has been engaged in illegal surveillance of American citizens, that's a story that ought to be told. And when the information is available to the newspaper in time for an election -- which is to say, in time for the American people to incorporate it into their thinking about whether to reelect said president -- well, it seems to us that the newspaper has a special obligation to get it into print promptly.
But then, we're not the New York Times.
When the Times reported on Dec. 15, 2005, that George W. Bush had authorized a plan for warrantless spying on American citizens, we -- and a lot of other people -- noticed a circumspect little sentence deep in the story. "After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns," James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wrote, "the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting."
Did a year mean "365 days", or did it mean "about 365 days"? And if it was the latter, did it mean that the Times knew about the warrantless wiretapping before the presidential election in November 2004? We put that question to Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis at the time, but she never answered it. The Times' public editor, Byron Calame, pursued the question with the Times' executive editor, Bill Keller, but he declined to comment, too.
To his credit, Calame never gave up. Troubled by what seemed to be shifting language about the delay -- the initial story and a statement issued over Keller's name said the paper had held the story for "a year," but Keller later seemed to acknowledge implicitly that the delay had been longer -- Calame kept asking for details, and Keller has now provided them: Drafts of the article were written weeks before the presidential election, Keller says, and "the climactic discussion about whether to publish was right on the eve of the election."
They knew the President was breaking the law and they didn't let the American people know before an election.
I didn't even notice the first time I looked at it. Photoshoppery 
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