Meet Your Liberal Media: Withhold Publication And Be Damned Edition

You can't handle the truth, according to Helen Keller and Pinchloaf:

But two journalists, who declined to be identified [sic], said that editors at the paper were actively considering running the story about the wiretaps before Bush's November showdown with Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.

Top editors at the paper eventually decided to hold the story. But the discussion was renewed after the election, with Risen and coauthor of the story, reporter Eric Lichtblau, joining some of the paper's editors in pushing for publication, according to the sources, who said they did not want to be identified because the Times had designated only Keller and a spokeswoman to address the matter.

"When they realized that it was going to appear in the book anyway, that is when they went ahead and agreed to publish the story," said one of the journalists. "That's not to say that was their entire consideration, but it was a very important one of them."

All the news that Bush permits.

Cowards.

And failed public editor Daniel Jokrent pipes up with this particularly unenlightened comment: "You are damned if you do and damned if you don't... For the right, this information never should have come out. And for the left, it never could have come out early enough." For anyone who cares about the rule of law, this information never could have come out early enough.

Update: This is rich: The Times opines on the "Fog of False Choices." It prefers that its readers have no choices. Congress didn't give Bush the authority to spy on Americans. For the past year, the Times did.