Say Anything Blog

The media engaging in a bit of self-serving reporting?  Who would’ve thunk it?

I don’t think it’s a secret that The New York Times tends to be particularly one-sided when reporting on matters of concern to The New York Times. Given that, perhaps everyone expects that a Times story on conservative support for a federal reporter’s privilege is going to be as much a work of advocacy as a work of reporting. Still, isn’t it a bit odd that Saturday’s story on the reporters’ privilege doesn’t disclose that both of the credited authors, Eric Lichtblau and Philip Shenon, have been personally involved recently in high-profile DOJ leak investigations?

The problem with a shield law for journalists is that it transfers the power to keep government secrets from our elected leaders - you know, the people we actually vote for - and hands it over to the government bureaucrats (who we don’t vote for) and the journalists they leak to (who we also don’t vote for).

Now, being a person who is rather distrustful of government in the first place, I’ll freely admit that politicians are often self-serving in deciding what information is public and what isn’t.  They cover things up for themselves and their buddies and there’s nothing good about that. But that being said, I prefer that imperfect situation to one where our elected leaders are constantly being undermined by politically-motivated underlings and reporters through leaks which are often selectively cherry-picked in nature.

The political elite may often be corrupt and arrogant, but I don’t see where the media elite are any less prone to those things.