Did he just let his hate for George Bush guide the decision? Byron Calame, The NYTimes ombudsman, buried a bombshell mea culpa in his column today–reversing his prior defense of the Times’ blabbermouth report on a once-secret terrorist banking data surveillance program and now admitting the paper was wrong to publish it: “What kept me from seeing these matters more clearly earlier in what admittedly was a close call? I fear I allowed the vicious criticism of The Times by the Bush administration to trigger my instinctive affinity for the underdog and enduring faith in a free press ” two traits that I warned readers about in my first column.”
Since the job of public editor requires me to probe and question the published work and wisdom of Times journalists, there’s a special responsibility for me to acknowledge my own flawed assessments.
My July 2 column strongly supported The Times’s decision to publish its June 23 article on a once-secret banking-data surveillance program. After pondering for several months, I have decided I was off base. There were reasons to publish the controversial article, but they were slightly outweighed by two factors to which I gave too little emphasis. While it’s a close call now, as it was then, I don’t think the article should have been published.
Those two factors are really what bring me to this corrective commentary: the apparent legality of the program in the United States, and the absence of any evidence that anyone’s private data had actually been misused. I had mentioned both as being part of “the most substantial argument against running the story,” but that reference was relegated to the bottom of my column.
The source of the data, as my column noted, was the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift. That Belgium-based consortium said it had honored administrative subpoenas from the American government because it has a subsidiary in this country.
I haven’t found any evidence in the intervening months that the surveillance program was illegal under United States laws. Although data-protection authorities in Europe have complained that the formerly secret program violated their rules on privacy, there have been no Times reports of legal action being taken.
…The lack of appropriate oversight ” to catch any abuses in the absence of media attention ” was a key reason I originally supported publication. I think, however, that I gave it too much weight.
In addition, I became embarrassed by the how-secret-is-it issue, although that isn’t a cause of my altered conclusion. My original support for the article rested heavily on the fact that so many people already knew about the program that serious terrorists also must have been aware of it. But critical, and clever, readers were quick to point to a contradiction: the Times article and headline had both emphasized that a “secret” program was being exposed. (If one sentence down in the article had acknowledged that a number of people were probably aware of the program, both the newsroom and I would have been better able to address that wave of criticism.)
Linked with Michelle Malkin, Patterico’s Pontifications,The Anchoress, JunkYardBlog, Macsmind, Riehl World View,
2- The mea culpa began in the 2nd paragraph of the 2nd page of his column:roll:
Looks like the New York Sewer is paying to price for its leftists stance good this paper isnt even worth linning a birds cage with
4- I…..will….try…..to……explain…..things…..so…..that….a…..person….with….your….limited…..comprehension…..skills….can…..understand….them
7, shitoh, you hate and hate deeply. We’ve seen it here. We’ve seen your deep hate while you lie, distort, and have your emotional meltdowns. So get off your soapbox and your pity pot. Neither suit you, nor do you handle either of them well.
This admission by the NY Times is only a small fraction of what they owe America and what needs to be done to repair the damage they have done.
imo the NY Times should be shut down. Period.
Some great photoshopped WWII posters characterizing the degenerate, treasonous NY Times (on Michelle Malkin’s site)
basically calling those who don’t agree with him unpatriotic. He isn’t calling nyone unpatriotic..the only people repeating this are those that disagree with Bush and somehow they must feel this way or they wouldn’t keep repeating the phrase they coined…When warned to be careful of wording due to the fact that the enemy preys on this type of rhetoric, the mental giants like shiloh took it that they were not allowed to disagree…it never dawned on them to think through the comment, as that would prove too difficult, instead they run around saying that everyone called them unpatriotic!:roll:
11- I have a feeling that this Hartman investigation has some editors worried..The press has the misguided impression that they are immune from prosecution….
15- Nixon……is……as…..guilty….as…..Ted…Kennedy…is….of…murder….both…got….off…on….technicalities….get…it…now?
Jane Harman….is…the…face….of…the….Democratic….plan…..Appease…those….hellbent…on…destorying…this…country……
shiloh tries valiantly to take up the cudgel and attack. He parrots the Democrite talking points, and repeats many of the popular soundbytes. But there is always something missing, it’s always off somehow.
That’s why I characterize his arguments as San Francisco Liberal with a lobotomy.
9. Shitoh hates America. Shitoh wants minority rule like in the movie, “Death Race 2000″. Shitoh is ruled by his delusions.
Shitoh, you are one miserable piece of …
There is nothing “democratic” about the Democrat party. They are the party of social fascism (political correctness), which is the most evil form of repression of free speeech ever seen in the U.S.
I refuse to say “Democratic party”, as most here know I have renamed them the “Democrite” party for reasons I have thoroughly articulated.
At best, it should be referred to as the “Democrat” party, NEVER “Democratic”. And of course all of the applicable variants are also appropriate:
DemokRat
Democrap
Demoscat
etc
23, shitoh, take your own advice. You listen to no one else anyway. And leave those goats alone.
#22 the answer to disagreements with the Republicans (and we have all expressed many) is not the Democrite Party. The Democrite Party has sunk so low into degeneracy, corruption, treason, and allying with our enemies to bring down Bush & the Republicans, no matter how great the damage, that I could never support this organized crime syndicate.
A third party is what we need, I’d call it the American party. Composed of Conservative, core American values: borders, language, culture. Fight every war one way: to win.
But the Democrap party needs to be flushed down the toilet. It is a stinking pile of sh…
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