Howard Kurtz’s column in today’s Washington Post reveals that President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an unsuccessful effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.
One of the meetings was with Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, who had this to say about the paper’s December 16 story on domestic spying by the NSA:
The decision to hold the story last year was mine. The decision to run the story last week was mine. I’m comfortable with both decisions. Beyond that, there’s just no way to have a full discussion of the internal procedural twists that media writers find so fascinating without talking about what we knew, when, and how—and that I can’t do.
The publication was not timed to the Iraqi election, the Patriot Act debate, Jim’s forthcoming book or any other event. [emphasis added]
Yup, it was just a coincidence. Who am I to question the purity of the Times’ motives?
Hypocrite! If Keller is arguing that the American public has the right to know about NSA activities, then doesn’t the American public also have the right to know why he decided to release it? I compliment Keller for accepting responsibility for his decision. Now, can we start asking that familiar refrain, what did he know and when did he know it?