http://www.townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/ma20050605.shtml
"Some profound questions at the airport"
Mike S. Adams
June 5, 2005
Note: The following post is an exact quote:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1417232/posts
Why Would the Times Publish This Story?
Tech Central Station ^ | June 6, 2005 | Frederick Turner
Posted on 06/05/2005 9:45:07 PM PDT by quidnunc
A recent article by Scott Shane, Stephen Grey and Margot Williams in the New York Times revealed the use of aircraft charter companies by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, together with specific aircraft markings, bases, routes, and other information helpful to identification of such flights.
Let us look at the possible motivations for the researching and reporting of this journalistically very competent article. The first would be that there is nothing special about such a story — it is merely an interesting set of facts, part of life's rich pageant of happenings, and people might be interested in reading the story. If this is the case, and the story has no more significance than, say, the choice of Ford for New York's fleet of animal control vehicles or the contracting of SAGA to cater food at the State Department, then why was it given major billing on the front page? ƒAnd why, further, would experienced reporters and editors not see that the story might have other effects? — effects possibly equivalent to shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater or, more to the point, blowing the cover of an intelligence agent operating in dangerous territory?ƒ
A second motive is that the exposé is news that a democratic free republic needs to make up its mind about public policy. However, the fact that the US uses private companies to conduct intelligence business is already well known; an opinion piece that cited this fact could have made this point without objection. A news article without specifics of aircraft markings, routes, and marques could have received general acceptance, if it had some point to make about some other aspect of the relationship between government and private agencies — for instance, it could have researched the corruption of the private sector by secret government money, or the risk to civilian contractors, or some possible deception of the general public. But since the general public would have been very surprised if US intelligence agencies did not secretly purchase the services of private companies — and indeed would be appalled by their incompetence if they did not — this motivation must be ruled out.
-snip-
That article was hilarious. It's the things we "wish" we could say to obnoxious travelers. Southwest Airlines has a fascinating cable show about real life airport personnel and the travelers they encounter.