April 19, 2006
Skateboarding, err I mean journalism is not a crime
With most of their big plans and programs for the country and world in shambles the conservative right is once again lashing out at their favorite easy punching bag, the media. The latest action to draw their ire was the announcement Monday of the latest batch of Pulitzer Prize winners. It seems they don’t like some of the stories that won. News that exposes their misdeeds shouldn’t be news, in fact overblown moralist and frequent gambler William Bennett wants to put three of the winners in jail for their impudent reporting.
Bennett singled out Dana Priest of The Washington Post who broke the news of the CIA’s secret European prison system, and The New York Times‘ James Risen and Eric Lichtblau who eventually published their scoop about the administration’s unsupervised domestic spying endeavors. The way Bennett sees it, both of those stories hurt America. Here’s his thoughts in his own words:
According to an Editor & Publisher transcript of the audio of his radio program, Bill Bennett said that the reporters “took classified information, secret information, published it in their newspapers, against the wishes of the president, against the request of the president and others, that they not release it. They not only released it, they publicized it — they put it on the front page, and it damaged us, it hurt us.
“How do we know it damaged us? Well, it revealed the existence of the surveillance program, so people are going to stop making calls. Since they are now aware of this, they’re going to adjust their behavior . . . .on the secret sites, the CIA sites, we embarrassed our allies….So it hurt us there.
“As a result are they punished, are they in shame, are they embarrassed, are they arrested? No, they win Pulitzer prizes - they win Pulitzer prizes. I don’t think what they did was worthy of an award - I think what they did is worthy of jail, and I think this investigation needs to go forward. ”
Let’s address Bennett’s points about how these stories hurt our country.
First the calls thing. Does he really believe terrorists don’t suspect they’re being watched and listened too. We have plenty of legal ways to tap phones and monitor the activities of suspicious people. In fact, that’s actually the biggest reason the public needed to know about the NSA domestic spying activities. The administration has yet to explain why they needed to circumvent all outside supervision to conduct this program. If the public had not found out about this Our Fine President and his brazen band of associates would have certainly taken their domestic spying party even further over the line, if they haven’t already. Someone could still snag next year’s Pulitzer if they uncover that one. Get to work people.
Now as to Bennett’s complaint that exposure of the European prisons embarrassed our allies. Where did he get the notion that this story’s most harmful impact is on the reputations of our precious former Soviet-Bloc allies? This story was a major national embarrassment for us here at home Bill. These prisons and the movement of the prisoners between them likely violated the Geneva Convention and severely damaged our national reputation. However, revealing them did not do any harm. The damage was done by their mere existance. These prisons were wrong long before Our Fine President got caught with them in his pockets.
Both of these stories are examples of why we need a free press to keep our Democracy healthy. You can argue that the Times hurt our country by holding the domestic spying piece for more than a year before publications, but the Pulitzer got it right by recognizing the news of the most consequence. The news is driven not by what will keep people happy but by what they should know. The clandestine and possibly illegal actions of our government certainly qualifies.
On a Pulitzer Prize related note, a former co-worker of mine claimed his second Pulitzer for photojournalism. I only worked a short time with Todd Heisler, but it’s great to see recognition for one of the many talented people I’ve had the honor of working alongside.
Click here to see Todd’s winning pics