Free Republic

NY TIMES NUMBER IN NEW YORK: 212-556-1234 I dialed the above number and went through the menu button pushing to get the international desk. I had a question for the NEW YORK TIMES that I thought was reasonable. LADY AT NEWS DESK: Hello, news desk DFU: Hello, I was inquiring so I could write a piece on FreeRepublic. Are you guys unhappy that you didn't get the information in time to be able to run a story and warn the airplane bomb plot terrorists that they were about to be arrested? LADY AT NEWS DESK: What kind of question is...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday blasted U.S. media for exposing details of highly secretive intelligence programs and asked the Bush administration for a formal damage assessment. Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), a Kansas Republican, asked U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte to report particularly on any damage to President George W. Bush's domestic spying program and another secret program by the Treasury Department that tracks private bank records. "Numerous, recent unauthorized disclosures of sensitive intelligence programs have directly threatened important efforts in the war against terrorism," Roberts, a staunch White House ally,...

The New York Times, which had been operating an all-free Web site, nytimes.com, will begin charging a fee for access to its major columnists under a new program called Times Select. Starting Sept. 19, the New York Times will charge $49.95 a year for online users to access 22 columnists including Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Nicholas Kristof and Frank Rich. -snip- Cybergossip Matt Drudge is threatening to boot the Times columnists. "I will yank the Times scribes if I can't find other outlets that are planning to carry them," threatened Drudge. "The Internet is...