About 150 New Yorkers gathered earlier this week to
demonstrate their outrage over the New York Times's decision to
publish details of a classified Treasury Department program
designed to track down the financial resources of Al Qaeda. The
rally, led by the president of the Caucus for America, Rabbi Arye
Spero, differed from the raucous, hate-filled anti-war protests
because "leftists have time to demonstrate all day, because
they don't have jobs," one of the protesters said. "We
can only come after work."
Such events that focus on the irresponsibility of biased news
organizations are extremely important. However, prosecuting the
Times for its perfidy would be unwise and dangerous to our
constitutional liberties.
Speakers at the rally included the chairman of the Congress of
Equality, Roy Innis, Jewish activist Beth Gilinsky, and radio
talk show host Barry Farber. A woman participating in a
counterdemonstration kept blowing a whistle to interrupt the
proceedings. Making noise instead of sense has long been the
practice of those on the wrong side of the argument.
In order to halt the attempts to dismantle our shield against
further enemy attacks, we need to focus on the real villains. The
Times editors and reporters may have allowed their loathing of
President Bush to cloud their judgment, but they received the
classified information from a traitor within the administration.
That's the person who should be in the crosshairs of a
congressional investigation.
Since the eruption of this treachery, the Times's editor, Bill
Keller, in an effort to minimize the damage, has issued several
statements that defy credibility. One argument: The public has a
right to know what our government is doing when it infringes on
our privacy rights. Another: The enemy already knew that we were
tracking their financial dealings. Another: This news was already
public. If that were truly the case, then why would the Times put
it on the front page?
What has steamed so many of us is that we are in the middle of a
global war. Apologists for the Times's actions say the fourth
estate has disclosed classified information in other perilous
times and that this is nothing new. During World War II, the
Chicago Tribune, in a story about the Battle of Midway, disclosed
the news that America had broken Japan's codes.
Although President Reagan accepted the blame for the Marine
deaths in Lebanon, the guilt may have truly belonged to the
press. The esteemed publisher of the Washington Post, Katharine
Graham, admitted in a 1986 article that a television network and
a newspaper reporter in 1983 disclosed that the U.S. government
had intercepted radio traffic between Syria and Iran, which
masterminded a fatal bomb attack on the American embassy in
Beirut. "Shortly thereafter the traffic ceased," she
wrote. "This undermined efforts to capture the terrorist
leaders and eliminated a source of information about future
attacks. Five months later, apparently the same terrorists struck
again at the Marine barracks in Beirut; 241 servicemen were
killed."
Mr. Keller needs to read and reread Graham's article in the
Washington Post, "Safeguarding Our Freedoms As We Cover
Terrorist Acts." I especially love her statement:
"There is a real danger, in short, that terrorists hijack
not only airplanes and hostages, but the media as well."
That our press has been hijacked is indisputable, and some of the
signs at the rally reflected that opinion: "Read the Times -
Qaeda Does!"; "Buy the Times - Support Our
Enemies"; "The NY Times: All the News That Fits the
Enemy's Agenda. Disarming America One Column at a Time."
What has eluded Mr. Keller and others at the Times is that while
other press peccadilloes have endangered our efforts during
wartime, they imperiled only our overseas engagements and
personnel. Has "the old gray lady" forgotten what
happened on September 11, 2001? The danger is right here, right
now for all of us.
Despite all this, like Graham, I believe that government muzzling
of the fourth estate is dangerous. It is far better to let market
forces and ordinary citizens remove their support from those
sponsoring the blabbing press until it learns to do its job with
unbiased integrity. Keep those rallies going, but let's not
forget that a free press is a hallmark of our democratic society.
In Stephen King's novel "Firestarter," the heroine's
only recourse to expose the truth of the enemies pursuing her is
to go to the reporters at Rolling Stone magazine. In the 1984
film version, the Times becomes her sanctuary.
How sad it is to watch the old gray lady fall off her venerable
pedestal.