New York Times Complicity in Bush Spy Scandal

To me, the most scandalous part of this latest Bush administration scandal–that GWB personally authorized and oversaw illegal spying on American citizens–is
not event he spying itself, though that’s certainly bad enough (and one
more reason why these dangerous and immoral people ought to be
impeached). This program is so “out there” that a lot of prominent
Republicans, including Arlen Spector and John McCain, are deeply
concerned.

But what’s really shocking to me is that the New York
Times apparently knew at least a year ago, and chose to hold back on
the story. Yes, of course, they’d need to thoroughly check their facts,
in case it was another attempt to entrap and discredit journalists, a
la the Dan Rather situation. But once they were sure, I would think the
story of a US President knowingly and deliberately breaking the law
would be considered news.

It’s unclear to me whether the story
was in the Times’ hands before the 2004 election–but surely, if they
knew, going public with that data might have changed the course of
history, given that the results were already not only close but highly
questionable.

The Times utterly failed in its responsibility to
its readers and the world. Is this the same newspaper that was so
active in reporting on the Pentagon Papers and Watergate?

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choices in business lead to business success, says Shel Horowitz in his
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