NY Times Exposed

[megiloth.livejournal.com]

Just when you thought the New York Times has only recently let out vital secrets...here are a couple lesser known and forgotten examples...

Comments

[temujin9.livejournal.com]

What exactly does this have to do with a civilian news organization publishing sensitive information it receives?

If the Times could find it out, so could a determined group of terrorists; this is not the Times' fault. How does keeping the Times from telling the people protect anybody except the terrorists (and those responsible for the vulnerability)?

[megiloth.livejournal.com]

What exactly does this have to do with a civilian news organization publishing sensitive information it receives?

Since the information is kinda supposed to NOT be known to the international community, it would be nice for the media to not report sensitive information.

The left had a fucking cow when Valerie Plame was "outed" and how that is was treasonous, compromised national security, and so forth. But when the NY Times reports about secret programs to track down terrorist activity, it's a "right to know" issue? When the Washington Post publishes about secret prisons, it's a "right to know" issue. Gotta love the double standard.

[theurv.livejournal.com]

The difference in the role of the individual. As a worker in the CIA the government had made clear to Plame she was to maintain a secret and her identity was kept from the public as part of her job. Which she did. It was people within the government who had no right according to their own rules to share that information who did in fact do so. If they had gone through the procedure of declassifying the information first then it was released they'd be complying with the rules and there would be no issue. But to reveal classified information for political reasons is both irresponsible and illegal.

Virus when a journalist does their job of learning and reporting information- they are fulfilling their job's duties. If they have found information that the government has classified through means other than the government, they are not releasing the classified materials even if the information is the same. Their activities are not illegal even if they are counter to the interest of the government at times.

And as for the secret programs themselves- the main issue is that the president has created programs without the constitutional authority to do so, by claiming war powers to take actions within our country against our own citizens and people we're not a war with. Legally there is are lines which have been bent and rights that have been ignored and principles we claim to stand for that are being marginalized. Such programs change what it means to be American with the reinterpretation of laws and rights; and thus citizens have a right to know and make judgments on it.

[temujin9.livejournal.com]

The double standard is called "security clearance". Valerie Plume was outed by somebody with it. The reporters at the New York Times and the Washington Post lack it.

None of which addresses my central point: if reporters could find out, so could terrorists. Blaming those who noticed the problem, instead of those who caused it, is massive foolishness.