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The NYT does not deny that the govt can have secrets. It just stands by its right to publish whatever it finds out about. THe two are not the same.

The govt cannot and must not be able to gag a private news enterprise.


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While I agree with this statement, it seems pointless to print everything simply because they found out about it and it was a government secret. Surely some discretion should be used on each story they discover, no? How does this help the American people in any way? How were we being harmed by not knowing this information? Is more good done by releasing this story or moving on to the next one? I doubt the NYT had any good answers for these questions when they decided to go with the story. The NYT's main agenda is not to exercise a free press in order to help the public. It wants to do whatever it can to break down the Bush administration and the right. *(Note: I'm not a Republican or a Bush supporter)

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I think that newspapers should employ good judgement in what the print and generally they do (not always).

The biggest issue with this controversy is not whether they should have printed it or not but that the so called purveyors of freedom have decided to come down hard on the printers of the story.

Regarding the story itself, there appears to be a pattern of secret investigations that are (at a minimum) border line infringing on the rights of the individuals from this administration under the guise of national security. This is a very, very disturbing trend.

I strongly think that the government should investigate electronic transfers but have no right to conduct it in secret and certainly have no biz lambasting the NYT. The investigations must be conducted with due process.