Thursday, June 29, 2006

Who Will Stand Up for Freedom of the Press?

The Bush administration's attempt to demonize the New York Times -- a newspaper that gave the administration plenty of aid and comfort when the White House was spinning lies about WMDs in Iraq will be remembered as one of the ugliest chapters in the history of press freedom in the United States.

The question that will ultimately be asked is not whether the Times did the right thing in revealing to the American people the details of Bush-authorized spying programs--by any measure, the newspaper was right to do what it did and history will provide more than enough vindication.

The ultimate question is this: When the White House, its allies in Congress and its echo chamber in the right-wing media attempted to intimidate mainstream outlets into keeping secret the details of invasions of privacy authrorized by an out-of-control executive branch, did responsible members of Congress move to check and balance and irresponsible president?

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