Leaks

The White House has launched a spring offensive in its 'œundeclared war on the media,' said Eric Alterman in The Nation. 'œJournalists are being questioned and subpoenaed' about the exposure of Bush's secret wiretapping program and the CIA's secret prisons outside the U.S. At the same time, the FBI is demanding to go on 'œa fishing expedition' through the private papers of recently deceased investigative reporter Jack Anderson. And CIA analyst Mary McCarthy was recently fired for allegedly giving secrets to the press—an allegation she denies. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is even hinting that the 1917 Espionage Act could be used to throw reporters in jail. This is nothing less than a direct assault on the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press, said David Wise in the Los Angeles Times. Prosecution by prosecution, the Bush administration is 'œchipping away' at the Constitution, and creating a system in which journalists who reveal embarrassing information can be sent to jail.

The administration is simply defending itself, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. For the last few years, 'œa cabal of partisan bureaucrats at the CIA' has been conspiring with liberal elements of the press corps to 'œundermine the Bush presidency.' In every case, the anonymous CIA officials and other 'œsources' quoted are partisan Democrats in the mold of Ambassador Joe Wilson or CIA analyst McCarthy, who gave $2,000 to the Kerry campaign. It's the right of these government servants to express their political biases, but not by giving out Top Secret information 'œto subvert the policy of a twice-elected administration.' When journalists join this cowardly campaign to sabotage the war on terror, they shouldn't be surprised when the White House treats them 'œlike the partisans they have become.'

It's not that black and white, said Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune. Governments do have the right to punish employees who give out classified information; if McCarthy was blabbing CIA secrets to reporters, she deserved to be fired. But elected officials 'œaren't pure,' and inevitably, they claim the right to classify anything they would rather not discuss with the public or Congress. If 'œthe president or his subordinates are breaking the law'—say, by wiretapping Americans without warrants or torturing prisoners—federal employees should have a means to blow the whistle, either by going to a congressional committee or, if necessary, talking to the press. A nation at war needs secrets. But 'œsecrecy is one of those virtues, like candor, that can easily be overdone.'

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