The nation's premier newspaper, the New York Times, is under attack from the government and many of its partisan adherents because of a report about the government's use of bank records to track terrorists and terrorist organizations.
All of this is following a predictable pattern, although the vitriol of those attacking the Times, as Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post reports, is at a high level. Predictable to a lesser degree though still not very surprising is the report from the Boston Globe that a lot of this information has already been in the public domain -- and the source has been the federal government itself.
One wonders, then, why the attack on the Times has been so virulent. The Times is a convenient target; a lot of people don't like the Times anyway and would certainly be willing to believe that it has compromised national security.
But the Bush strategy here may be like that of a baseball team manager arguing the call of the umpire; he knows he won't get the call changed but hopes to intimidate the ump into giving him the next one.
Let's hope that doesn't happen.
|
Topics:
|
47
vote
|
Discussing:
- Goldman exec: clients are "muppets" (7 replies)
- Education Week: "New K-12 Advocacy Groups Wield State-level Clout" (17 replies)
- Shelley Breeding (26 replies)
- From the "you're kidding, right?" file... (4 replies)
- Willie Nelson + Chipotle + The Scientist (1 reply)
- Ask questions, shop around, save money on telecomm (5 replies)
- Reading speed test (1 reply)
- In Black and White: Resegregation Indisputable per Annual TN Charter Schools Rpt (2 replies)
- Background so far: Creation of TEAM/APEX teacher evaluation model and legislative pushback (55 replies)
- "We abandoned the idyll of Brigadoon and settled instead for Lord of the Flies." (2 replies)
- Inaugural Internet Hall of Fame (5 replies)
- Verizon cuts price on Razr MAXX (6 replies)
Upcoming events:
- May 19 2012 - 1:00pm (2 days 12 hours from now)
User login
Navigation
TN Progressive
- A paler shade of green (Enclave)
- Can we clone Bernie Sanders?? (Left Wing Cracker)
- Candidate for Property Assessor, David Morgan, Sent Out His Top Ten List (RoaneViews)
- Technically True But Still Utter BS (Southern Beale)
- Tea Party For Obama (Southern Beale)
- Voter Fraud in the Legislature (RoaneViews)
- Al Gore, Inductee Internet Hall of Fame (Waiting for the Republican Apology...Still Waiting...) (Kitchen Table)
- A Tribute to our Veterans - 2012 Memorial Weekend Events, City of Harriman / American Legion Post 53 (RoaneViews)
- Whipped off a quick email to Erica Gilmore before the start of Metro Council (Enclave)
- Governor Signs Bills...I Have No Idea What Some of Them Mean (RoaneViews)
- He vs She – patience (Domestic Psychology)
- O Captain! My Captain! (Newscoma)
- The Police Association fights back! (Left Wing Cracker)
- About That Motion to Intervene… (Vibinc)
- More Romney Economics (Left Wing Cracker)
- Is Everything OK? (Joe Powell)
TN Politics
- Bills Signed by Governor, 5/16/12 (Tom Humphrey)
- Trying to stop bullying (Cara Kumari)
- You're welcome, Virginia (Post Politics)
- Pawn promotion (Post Politics)
- Hasalm Signs Budget Bill; Says He's OK With Funding Virginia Museum (Tom Humphrey)
- Frankly my dear (Post Politics)
- They call it the Rising Sun (Post Politics)
- Former Judge Faces New Charges of Covering Up Mistress (Tom Humphrey)
- Legal, Payment Questions Linger on Welfare Drug Testing Bill (Tom Humphrey)
- Lamar To Be Decorated by Emperor of Japan (Tom Humphrey)
- Weak Tea (obviously) (Post Politics)
- The Common Core Concept (Cara Kumari)
Local Media Blogs
- Knoxville's "Self-Evident Truths" Portraits Online (Metro Pulse)
- Arby's building gets rock-star treatment (Josh Flory)
- Scott West Market Square update (Josh Flory)
- Help pours in for evicted senior (Jack McElroy)
- Ad firm signs lease for Old City rehab (Josh Flory)
- Wednesday briefing (Josh Flory)
- Gay Street building sold (Josh Flory)
- The Tomato Head To Close Maryville Location, Open in West Knoxville (Metro Pulse)
- Nellie McKay at the Bijou (Metro Pulse)
- Maybe newsrooms need to kick the front page habit (Jack Lail)
- Bearden girl wins $5,000 1st Amendment prize (Jack McElroy)
- Burgers and Burritos, Oh My! (Metro Pulse)
Local Paper
- Woman injured in Jefferson County shooting (KNS News)
- Jurors set to decide fate of defendants in Sevier mortgage fraud case (KNS News)
- Authorities stage one-day security blitz at truck scales (KNS News)
- Knoxville sign ordinance receives public scrutiny (KNS News)
- Man admits lying in wait to kill federal administrative law judge (KNS News)
- Tennessee 15th in private equity investment (KNS Business)
- Scott County to close hospital (KNS Business)
- Silver Spoon Cafe looking for new location (KNS Business)
- Scripps Networks touts year to come at shareholders meeting (KNS Business)
- Solar farm powered up in Oak Ridge (KNS Business)
Local TV News
- Residents upset about prostitutes in North Knoxville (WATE)
- Dog bites on the rise in Tennessee (WATE)
- 6 tips to help sell your home (WATE)
- Campbell road superintendent proposes alternate earthslide detour (WBIR)
- Knoxville church remembers couple killed in crash (WBIR)
- Cold Case: Investigators link five unsolved Knox County murder cases (WBIR)
- Woman shot in Chestnut Hill home invasion (WBIR)
- Knox County commissioners consider mayor's budget (WATE)
- Dry, rainless spring causes issues for East Tennessee farmers (WATE)
- Third Creek shows progress following mulch facility fire (WBIR)
- Revolutionary surgery for knees and hips (WVLT)
- Police: Homeowner answered knock with shotgun (WVLT)
State News
- Stanton’s 2-run HR helps Marlins beat Braves, 8-4 (Times Free Press)
- Blaze in Downtown Memphis injures one (Commercial Appeal)
- Bankruptcy court OKs $74.3M in financing for Pinnacle Airlines (Commercial Appeal)
- Dalton man convicted of home invasion charges (Times Free Press)
- Memphis economic development agency will move into the Tower at Peabody Place (Commercial Appeal)
- MLGW says some utility customers targeted by ID theft scam (Commercial Appeal)
- U.S. markets pulled down by increasing instability in Greece (Commercial Appeal)
- Chattanooga-based CBL buys North Dakota mall for $91.4 million (Times Free Press)
- Robin Copp announced as new principal of Signal Mountain Middle High School (Times Free Press)
- Ringgold advances in Class AAA baseball playoffs (Times Free Press)
- Attorney: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s estranged wife found dead in New York (Tennessean)
- Vanderbilt running back to transfer (Tennessean)
Wire Reports
- Afghanistan mulls Islamic bonds, fearing Western cash cutback (Yahoo Politics)
- Census: Minorities now surpass whites in US births (Yahoo Politics)
- JPMorgan's future losses at the mercy of an obscure index (Yahoo Business)
- Venezuelan-born academic named president of MIT (Yahoo News)
- Analysis: U.S. bond bulls not ready to call off the charge (Yahoo Business)
- Data suggests drug treatment can lower U.S. crime (Yahoo News)
- Global shares recover a bit, though fear on Greece remains (Yahoo Business)
- California biker gets life term for murder of Hells Angels leader (Yahoo News)
- Third suspect in slaying of U.S. Marine's wife pleads not guilty (Yahoo News)
- Super Bowl winners New York Giants get "Big Blue" rings (Yahoo News)
- J.C. Penney stock has worst fall ever (Yahoo Business)
- Fears over Greece's political and financial crisis (Yahoo Business)
- Crossroads announcing $25 million ad push (Yahoo Politics)
- SPIN METER: Rivals airbrush anti-Romney words (Yahoo Politics)
- Romney wins Nebraska, Oregon primaries (Yahoo Politics)
Site Statistics
- Posts: 23
- Comments: 286
- Visits: 8,386
- Pageviews: 20,103
- Posts: 127
- Comments: 1360
- Visits: 39,827
- Pageviews: 98,769
Popular today
Popular this week
- The APEX fiasco and diversionary tactics from KNS
- Background so far: Creation of TEAM/APEX teacher evaluation model and legislative pushback
- It's OK to bully gay people if you don't know they're gay?
- Positions to add to that list of APEX victims
- Haslam: Vouchers are coming
- Gun-crazy
- Cash Mob: Thress Nursery today
TN Progressive
- BlountViews
- Cup of Joe Powell
- Left Wing Cracker
- Newscoma
- Out of the Blue
- RoaneViews
- Sean Braisted
- Southern Beale
- TN Citizen Action
- TN Talking Points
- Tiny Cat Pants
- TN Guerilla Women
- Vibinc
- View From My Kitchen Table
- WhitesCreek Journal
Nearby:
- AC Entertainment
- Agrarian Urbanite
- Blount Dems
- Bottom Line
- Craig Thomas
- Daily Pulse
- David Oatney
- Discover ET
- Domestic Psychology
- Ellen Smith
- Fletch
- Frank Murphy
- Home/Work
- Instapundit
- Jack Lail
- Jack McElroy
- Jim Stovall
- Julie Apple
- Knox Dems
- KnoxBlab
- Knoxify
- Knoxvillager
- Les Jones
- Lynn Point Records
- MamaPundit
- Michael Silence
- Mike Donila
- MoxCarm Blue Streak
- Mushy's Moochings
- Outdoor Knoxville
- P.E.N. Studio
- Pittman Properties
- Political Leverage
- Property Scope
- Reality Me
- Rikki Hall
- Rob Huddleston
- School Matters
- Stacey Campfield
- Stop Alcoa Parkway
- Stuck inside Knoxville
- Suzy Trotta
- Tom Humphrey
- Tri Cities
Beyond:
- Andy Axel
- Daily Docket
- Democratic Talk Radio
- Enclave
- Ginger Snaps
- Post Politics
- Quiet Life
- Smart City Memphis
- TN Dems
- TN Ticket
- TN Trivia
- TN Women's Caucus
- Bob Stepno
- Facing South
- Lovable Liberal
- Newsrack
- Wandering Hillbilly
At large:
- Agonist
- Alterdestiny
- Atrios
- Burnt Orange Report
- Buzzflash
- College Dems
- Common Cause
- Crooks and Liars
- Daily Kos
- Democratic Strategist
- Democrats.org
- Digby's Hullabaloo
- Ezra Klein
- The Fix
- Huffington Post
- Liberal Oasis
- Media Matters
- MyDD
- Open Secrets
- Pam's House Blend
- Political Wire
- Politico
- Progressive States
- Seeing the Forest
- Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
- Suburban Guerrilla
- Talk Left
- Talking Points Memo
- Think Progress
- Truthdig
- Truthout

Wonder why they aren't
Wonder why they aren't piling on the Wall Street Journal? Or why they have never objected to the Valerie Plame outing? Or why they never complained about the NYT reporting all that "curveball" misinformation/propaganda leading up to the invasion of Iraq?
Good analogy re. the umpire call. I was afraid they were backing themselves into a corner with all the rhetoric, and would be forced to do something stupid. Based on Tony Snow's comment yesterday that they won't be revoking the NYT's White House press privileges, I suppose we can assume it was just blustering, and as you say, intimidation.
GOP = Joe Mikulik
And the GOP is increasingly starting to look like Joe Mikulik.
video: (link...)
____________________________
"The iPod was not developed by Baptists in Waco." -- G.K.
There was nothing wrong or
There was nothing wrong or illegal about the program. So what exactly IS in the public interest in publishing this NSA program ... one that the NYT called for itself in an editorial on 9/24/01?
================
(link...)
One of the New York Times’s justifications for exposing the Bush administration’s post-9/11 scrutiny of international banking transactions via access to Swift, the Belgium-based international banking-information system, is that the American people never gave the feds permission to snoop into banking records—even those of suspected Islamist terrorists. Thus, the Times must save the day by alerting us all. But there’s a flaw in this justification. When the Bush administration did ask the American people for permission to scrutinize banking records for terrorist activity, Congress practically shouted yes, without public objection.
Just six weeks after 9/11, Congress overwhelmingly passed the USA Patriot Act. Among other things, the act vastly increased the Treasury Department’s ability to examine both domestic banking transactions and international ones whose activity touches the U.S. for possible terrorist activity, by expanding longstanding tools to uncover money laundering. Federal law now requires all banks and brokerage firms doing business in the U.S. to keep detailed records of new customers and to report any suspicious clients or transactions to the authorities.
ummmm - people could be up
ummmm - people could be up set because people could actually die because of the NYT's posting of classified information?
And regarding an earlier comment - was Val truly outed? Outed from what? There has certainly been a lot of accusations about an outing without an actual determination of such. I guess it is kind of like the SKB outing. Not very pleasant but certainly not any crime...
That people die
That people die because it has been reported that bank records are subpoenaed is horsepuck.
If our government gets commercial records via subpoena then ANYONE should have the right to know, particularly the person whose records are being subpoenaed.
The lengths to which people, who otherwise claim to be conservative, will blindly tolerate unchecked executive power is astonishing.
Happy Independence Day,
SC
Oh, pleeze
...ummmm - people could be up set because people could actually die because of the NYT's posting of classified information?
Oh, pleeze. Besides this also being reported by the GOP'S darling WSJ, as well as The Boston Globe, it was mentioned in today's paper that the SWIFT program was also reported on years ago. Wingnuts need to learn that the media is not the enemy. Though of course those making such accuasations don't believe that; they just want the sheeple to think that to divert blame for politcal gain. That's why the umpire analogy fits.
Why don't people like RedDog try and help President Bush to find out who leaked Plame's name, which Bush acknowledged and whom he pledged to fire. Sounds like it must have been a serious issue.
_________________________________
Never has the left been so right.
Post new comment