GOODY TWO SHOES: The New York Times Can Keep A Secret. Who Knew?
In an interview with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz on CNN, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller said that keeping mum about reporter David Rohde's kidnapping by the Taliban seven months ago was "an agonizing position that we revisited over and over again” and that “we were told by people that probably the wisest course for David's safety was to keep it quiet." Keller agreed because “I also have a responsibility for the people who work for me. I send a lot of people out into dangerous places and their security is also part of my job."s
This would be the same Keller who repeatedly defended his paper’s zealous disclosure of our country’s military secrets, despite pleas from Bush administration officials and national security experts that our troops would be imperiled (second item) and that ongoing efforts to nip terrorists plots in the bud could be undermined.
Here’s the kicker: Keller told CNN: “The more you talk about who did what ... the more you're writing a playbook for the next kidnapping."
The Associated Press reports that The Times kept the kidnapping quiet out of concern for the men's safety and the wire service - along with other media outlets (including Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera) - did the same at The Times' request, prompting Kurtz to ponder whether “the unusual arrangement raises questions about whether journalists were giving special treatment to one of their own”:
"It certainly could appear that way, but it's more complicated than that when a human life is at stake," said Phil Bronstein, former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. "It does involve a news organization keeping quiet and asking others to keep quiet. What shocks me is that it was so successful."
John Daniszewski, an Associated Press senior managing editor, said that "it is not the most comfortable position to be in. Your instinct is to publish what you know. But we felt there was just too high a risk something would happen to him." Daniszewski said the AP also withheld news around the same time when a staffer for a nongovernmental organization was briefly kidnapped in
Make no mistake: Journos value their lives and the lives of their colleagues more than they value the lives of our uniformed personnel in harm’s way, else Keller Agonistes, et al. would apply the same forbearance when it comes to covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as matters relating to intelligence-gathering.
Bonus: JibJab unveiled a new parody (video) at Friday night’s Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner set to the tune of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” that depicts President Barack Hussein Obama as (what else?) a superhero-cum-messiah:
When darkness had descended all across the land
A lone voice in the distance uttered Yes! We can!
He gave good speeches. Never sweat.
He was real good at the Internets.
He’s Barack Obama.
He’s come to save the day.
But what makes a JibJab parody biting and buzzworthy is that no punches are pulled:
He’ll spend the dough! Write the checks!
Disregard the mounting debt!
Stop the globe from getting warm!
Fill your car with nuts and corn! …
You’re Barack Obama
You’ve come to save the day!
So just snap your fingers
And fix the
The Stiletto’s favorite part is the “Batman”-like beacon in the sky with Obama’s enormous ears where the bat wings would be – and the way they flap in the breeze as he flies through the air is a hoot, too.
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