Posted on 07/05/2006 11:02:03 AM PDT by wagglebee
When is a "secret" not a secret?
When the New York Times decides, in the interest of saving its old gray hide, that it is not.
On June 22, the paper trumpeted its exposé of "a secret Bush administration program" to track terror finances. The banking program, reporters Eric Lichtblau and James Risen made unmistakably clear, was a "closely held secret." The front-page story referred to the secret nature of the program no less than eight times. A Times-produced Web video featuring Lichtblau promoted a brief interview in which he "reveal(ed) a secret Bush administration program to access financial records."
But by July 2, smarting from the public backlash against its blabbermouth coverage, the Times crew was backpedaling faster than circus monkeys on barrels hurtling over Niagara Falls. Suddenly, the "secret" was no secret at all.
Everybody who's anybody has known about the secret program all along, silly. New York Times ombudsman Byron Calame's belated defense of the Times' exposé of the monitoring of the SWIFT banking program contained this revealing passage:
"There was a significant question as to how secret the (monitoring of the SWIFT banking program) was after five years. 'Hundreds, if not thousands, of people know about this,' (executive editor Bill) Keller claimed he was told by an official who talked to him on condition of anonymity."
"Hundreds, if not thousands, of people" have known about the program before the Times blabbed about it. Well, there's a scoop. So, why wasn't this reported in the original story and reflected in the original, front-page headline?
There was no printed follow-up from lapdog Calame about Keller's assertion, which goes a good bit further than the claim by Times' apologists Richard Clarke and Roger Cressey. That mind-reading duo wrote in a Times op-ed that terrorists already assumed their financial transactions were being monitored. Calame curiously neglected to note that Keller's claim contradicted both the tone and facts presented in the Times' initial coverage by reporters Lichtblau and Risen.
Which is just as well, since Lichtblau himself is now contradicting his own story, too. On CNN's "Reliable Sources," facing withering criticism from talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, Lichtblau blustered:
"When you have senior Treasury Department officials going before Congress, publicly talking about how they are tracing and cutting off money to terrorists, weeks and weeks before our story ran. USA Today, the biggest circulation in the country, the lead story on their front page four days before our story ran was the terrorists know their money is being traced, and they are moving it into – outside of the banking system into unconventional means. It is by no means a secret" (emphasis added).
Hmm. What was that headline over Lichtblau's story again? Oh, yeah: "Bank data sifted in secret by U.S. to block terror." Meanwhile, finance regulators and top government officials in Belgium (who apparently aren't among the "hundreds, if not thousands" who knew about the program) have ordered a probe into SWIFT, which is regulated by the Belgian central bank and answers to Belgian law. Bush-undermining Eurowheedlers are launching a debate in parliament over the program next week, and a private human-rights lobbying group has filed formal complaints against the SWIFT banking consortium in 32 countries.
Lesson No. 1: Never trust the Times' headlines.
Lesson No. 2: Never trust what's printed under the Times' headlines.
Lesson No. 3: Never trust what comes out of the mouths of the Times' editors and reporters.
Avoid the newspaper of wreckage, and help keep American safe.
The Old Gray Whore and its editors need to be indicted for treason.
Michelle Malkin Ping.
Probably the same thing for the F-22's software that runs it's tactical systems. Would the NT Times publish the source code?
Hundreds, if not thousands of people knew that Val Plame was a "secret" agent, too. So what.
Back in 1943-44, thousands and thousands of people were in England and they knew that they were training for D-Day, I wonder if they would have reported that.
OK, so I have one simple question for the New York Slimes: then, why did you run the "story"?
If I were to see such an article in the NYT, I'd want to verify it. But I don't expect to see such an article in the NYT. Because it's already been verified -- and the NYT stays away from that stuff.
which newspaper is it that openly admits its staff is 85% gay? tell me there is no agenda there
"Hundreds, if not thousands, of people" have known about the program"
"Probably the same thing for the F-22's software that runs it's tactical systems. Would the NT Times publish the source code?"
Please .... dont give them any ideas! :-)
Sorry, but the NYT would never report it that way ...
NYT headline: "Sun rises in East today; women and minorities hardest hit"
Article lead: "As Bush administration faces new questions over energy policies, the sun rose in the east today, as it has for many thousands of years. This phenomenon has been remarked on by millions of people, some of those same people now are facing difficult choices. Not all are able to find jobs this morning, although the Bush administration has yet to acknowledge responsibility for their wellbeing. For workers, especially women, 'Mornings are the hardest' said single-mother and worker at a dry cleaning establishment, Vonda LaMar."
;)
FR threads on Monday's FReep with Michelle, and her HotAir video:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1659859/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1659864/posts
http://hotair.com/archives/vent/2006/07/04/dissent-is-patriotic-protesting-the-nyt/
O.K. folks. When those mailers come for subscriptions to the NY Times they should be returned with something HEAVY in the prepaid envelope! (Include a note to let them know why.)
"Everybody who's anybody has known about the secret program all along"
Just like everybody who's anybody already knew the "open secret" that Valerie Plame was a "CIA operative", yet when that was made known in the press, it led to an attempt to indict Karl Rove.
Why was the publication of one set of "secret" facts used to beat up the Bush Administration, while the publication of another set of "secret" facts was used to beat up the Bush Administration?
Answer: To punish the Bush Administration for being so "secretive".
I have no clue as to how this can be used to tie the Bush Administration to the financial crisis in New Jersey.
Keller is such an idiot - secret, secret, secret, not secret.
Why are the MSM-types sticking a microphone in his face and demanding he answer THAT question?
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