The Laughing Wolf

Shady Lady Strikes Again

Crossposted at Blackfive.

And blows the lid of yet another secret and successful operation to stop terrorism. Once again, something done overseas, with oversight, and not a hint of domestic abuse. Something that worked, and of which the terrorists are now fully aware. Way to go NYT, your war against Bush carries on even if it gets Citizens of this country butchered and endangers our freedoms.

Yes, our freedoms. I've discussed this before and you can find a lot more on journalism and parts of this in the Saving Pvt. Journalism files and my general posts on the media.

Freedom of the press is not an absolute, or at least not as presented by the priesthood that is the modern media. Freedom of the press actually comes from freedom of access to the press, which used to be a huge, heavy, and expensive piece of equipment that might be available in one place in an entire region. The concept of freedom of the press has evolved with the Republic, and the modern ability to shield anonymous sources comes largely from the meatpacking scandals. The courts ruled that in limited, repeat limited, cases that newspapers and magazines (radio and TV not yet on the scene) had the right to keep sources of information anonymous if so doing -- as recognized by the courts -- was in the greater public good by allowing corruption and other dangers to the Constitution (and freedoms therein) to be exposed. There has been ever since a dance between local, state, and federal governments and "the press" a careful dance since neither side wanted to run the risk of establishing a "bad" precedent in this regard via the courts.

What the Shady Lady has done by the Lichtblau and Risen stories, along with the whole Plame affair, is force this issue in ways that could undermine all previous precedent. My concern with this is that we could find ourselves without ways to expose real dangers and true corruption thanks to their self-serving, arrogant, ill-considered, and flat-out ignorant ravings.

Yet, for the clear and present danger I see to a free press (which is a heck of a lot more than the Old Media), I also see deliberate acts that seek to provide -- in my opinion -- aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war. While I wish the administration would indeed grow a pair and some vertebrae and press for charges, I doubt that will happen. It should, however. At the very least, I find the actions of the reporters and editors at the Shady Lady such that when the next Citizen or group of Citizens of the Republic are butchered by terrorists, that they should face civil and criminal charges as accomplices.

Way to go Times! You give aid and comfort to those sworn to destroy our country and the entire ideals of Western Civilization, and you damage or destroy the very foundations of a free and independent press. Feh.

LW