Posted on 09/12/2006 2:17:22 PM PDT by shrinkermd
The United States of America vs. Bill Keller
How hard is it to be executive editor of the New York Times today? The White House calls him a traitor. He gets roasted every day on talk shows and blogs. The newsroom is losing faith. The paper is shrinking. And the worst part is that fighting back means overcoming his own nature...
...For a meeting without historical precedent, the president of the United States had called the Times to the White House to personally try to prevent a state secret from appearing in print—an exposé of the National Security Agency’s efforts to monitor phone calls without court-approved warrants that the Times had held back on for over a year. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. sat in a wing chair facing Bush, while Keller and Washington bureau chief Philip Taubman sat across from Bush’s lawyer, Harriet Miers, and national-security adviser Stephen Hadley. General Michael Hayden, the then-director of the National Security Agency, sat alongside Bush with a thick briefing book in his lap...
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
Missed by this Administration is that the NYT, the RATS and the liberal wackos all want a US defeat in Iraq and this is just one effort made to insure this.
NYT = Traitors
Die, NY Times, die!
Of course, those qualifications exclude most of the readers of the New York Times and New York magazine.
Congressman Billybob
Latest article: "A Burial at Arlington"
Please see my most recent statement on running for Congress, here.
Darn, I was hoping this would be the complaint in a real legal case.
Best paragraph...
"The Times itself helped weaken the right of reporters to protect sources by taking Judith Miller’s tortured case to the steps of the Supreme Court and failing. The paper has been attacked by the president as “disgraceful” for publishing national-security secrets, the vice-president has led a chorus of conservative commentators impugning its patriotism, and a grand-jury probe of the NSA leak could bring yet more subpoenas for reporters. Conservative commentators have even urged the Justice Department to charge the paper under the Espionage Act, an unlikely but terrifying prospect that could mean jail time for Sulzberger and Keller and perhaps force the closure of the newspaper. Ominously, the Bush administration appears to have the support of the public; a national poll shows 54 percent of Americans in favor of wiretapping without warrants. There’s not a lot of enthusiasm for press freedom, either."
There have been many articles comparing President Bush to President Harry S Truman, and it occurs to me that if President Truman had summoned the editors and publishers of the New York Times to the Oval Office, it would not have been to "request" that the NYT not publish a story revealing that NSA surveillance program, it would have been an ORDER, something along the lines of:
"Mr. Keller? Mr. Sulzburger? Mr. Taubman? You are here today for one purpose and one purpose only, which is to witness my pulling this pen from my coat, and this exeuctive order from my desk, and prohibiting you and your paper and all of your subsidiaries, from publishing one G-ddamned word about this NSA program that you seem Hell-bent on revealing to the detriment of the war effort and our national security, and to the benefit of America's enemies.
"This is not open to debate and I will not stand for you hiding behind the First Amendment in order to pursue your anti-American agenda and to do harm to this Nation and our Armed Forces while we are at War. I will not permit it. If I see one damn word of this published or leaked from your friendly anonymous sources, I will sign a second executive order which will authorize you gentlemen and any other parties I believe may be assisting to, to be arrested, detained and transported to a United States military internment camp for espionage and sabotage against the United States, you will receive a hearing before a military tribunal, and there is an excellent chance that you will be found guilty, given a cigarette and a blindfold, and shot as traitors. And should that happen you can go to your grave being assured that ALL of your corporate AND personal assets will be seized by the United States Treasury Department, your families and loved ones will not receive one damn dime in benefits or insurance proceeds, your names will go down in history as dark as that of the Rosenbergs and you can bet your ass on that. Now are you going to comply with this executive order, or is this going to become unpleasant?
"Thank you gentlemen, I was sure you would see this my way and I thank you for your cooperation. The Secret Service agents will escort you to the exit, and I hope this visit to the White House has been as memorable for you as it has been for me. Good day gentlemen."
How much longer will you stay in business? The public (and your poorer shareholders) have the right to know!!!
The New York Times...the mascot of the ENEMEDIA!
niiiiice! LOL :0)
How many ways can I say 'traitor'? Let me count the ways: New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSN, HNN, USA Today...
"...a national poll shows 54 percent of Americans in favor of wiretapping without warrants. There’s not a lot of enthusiasm for press freedom, either."
----
I'm keeping my eye on the donut, not the hole!
I saw the presidents speech. I wish he would make more like this often. My complaint with the pres is were is the propaganda? We need 24/7 propaganda, Press censorship when it comes to war news, not like the dems censorship when something that embarrasss us is said
Actually, it's really not Keller, but 'Pinch' Sulzberger. HE'S the reason why the NYT is what it is. If the NYT stockholders wanted to try to save their investment, they should find a way to fire Pinch, not Keller.
What a marvelous quote.
Overall, this story tended to prove that an insufferable bunch of primadonnas work at the Times.
These are the people who thrive on their "self-esteem" -- to the exclusion of just about anything else.
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