When I heard about The New York Times (NYT) leaking in detail President Bush's policy to monitor terrorists' financial transactions I was furious. You do not leak details during a war. It only helps the enemy. The terrorists monitor the news. But this is business as usual for the NYT. They leaked that the US were monitoring the terrorists' cell phone activities and the NYT named countries that were/are part of the rendition program. Thank you NYT. What's next? I don't who is worse, the person who leaked the Bush's policy to monitor terrorists' financial transactions or the NYT itself. The gov't employee who leaked the story did not have to leak it, but the NYT certainly did not have to print the story. The chain of control it seems ends with the NYT.
You might ask yourself well, doesn't the terrorists already suspect we are monitoring them? Probably, but the press does not have to confirm the terrorists' suspicions. Like I said before you don't help the enemy.
The press would have never have thought of divulging secrets during World War II. Can you imagine if someone leaked the D-day operation to the NYT and they printed it? FDR would have not only prosecuted the leaker but the editor of the NYT too for treason. Or how about this NYT headline: "Truman making an atomic bomb to drop on Japan." Again it would be an treasonist action.
I should say that the press and even the people should be skeptical of their gov't. But during war time the press doesn't have to help the enemy either by giving them info or encouraging them by always reporting the deaths the US solders in Iraq and Afghanistan. The deaths of US solders during WW II were never reported. The press now days hardly ever reports deaths of the enemy unless it is a major news story. On my War on Terror/9ll web page I have articles of the US arm forces successes + some other info about the War on Terror. It would be nice if the NYT and the other major news media once in a while would report successes of the US military. It's called balance reporting.
Posts
1 comment:
Yes, we do have a right to know who our fallen soldiers are and in this way we can identify them and honor them-are you kidding me? All general information should be revealed about what our government is doing. I can understand specific details of an operation being closed-that makes sense, but yes we need to know all we can about what's going on. Remember, the enemy can also be within!
Post a Comment