Republicans Escalate Their War On the Press

Republicans continue their assault on the freedom of speech by vilifying the NY Times for it's release of details on monitoring of international financial dealings that has been widely known since the Clinton years. The 1996 Economic Espionage Act led to the establishment of a super secret program code-named Echelon which was authorized to collect economic espionage by monitoring financial transations, phone calls, etc. The reason they do it, is it works. It sounds unpatriotic for a news media source to leak secrets. The fact that such monitoring was widely known is buried in the hoopla.
WaPo

President Bush calls the conduct of the New York Times "disgraceful." Vice President Cheney objects to the paper having won a Pulitzer Prize. A Republican congressman wants the Times prosecuted. National Review says its press credentials should be yanked. Radio commentator Tammy Bruce likens the paper to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.


Even by modern standards of media-bashing, the volume of vitriol being heaped upon the editors on Manhattan's West 43rd Street is remarkable -- especially considering that the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal also published accounts Friday of a secret administration program to monitor the financial transactions of terror suspects. So, in its later editions, did The Washington Post.