Free Republic

The New York Times came under heavy fire yesterday for disclosing a secret program that tracks terror financing - with a top Treasury Department official calling the leak "very damaging," and an influential Republican labeling the disclosure "treason." Criticism of a June 23 front-page story on the secret program, which gives the Bush administration access to a huge database of international financial transactions, intensified at a hearing yesterday of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "I think, frankly, it's treason," fumed Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), chairman of the Financial Services Committee. "Nobody is happier about these revelations...

The spotlight is on the New York Times today, but things aren't going so well at the Los Angeles Times, either.THOSE PROFESSING SURPRISE at the public collapse of credibility at the New York Times haven't been paying attention to Mickey Kaus or Andrew Sullivan. They haven't been reading the descent into fevers of Paul Krugman or the bitter stridency of Maureen Dowd. The deep sickness at the Times had many symptoms. Believers in the "mission" of the paper just chose to ignore those symptoms. The very same symptoms are evident at the Los Angeles Times. The ideology of the newsroom...