Attacking The New York Times… With Fake Anthrax

New York police rushed to The New York Times building today after an employee opened a letter that contained a white powdery substance that had the potential to be anthrax. The letter contained a New York Times editorial defending its articles that exposed the Bush administration’s secret spying operations. The editorial had an “X” slashed through it. Thankfully, the Department of Environmental Protections has since determined it was not anthrax, just powder.

The incident likely strikes fear in the Newspaper of Record, which has faced harsh criticism over the last couple of weeks and months. The ridiculousness of the episode is quite clear: An America-can-never-do-wrong “patriot”, pissed about the newspaper allegedly ‘helping terrorists’, decides the best way to handle the situation is to become a terrorist. Insane.

Those who are so quick to jump on The New York Times and other media outlets for publishing stories on domestic spying need to wake up. A well-informed public is an absolutely essential part of democracy. An educated public cannot exist if people in power are able to side-step laws and perform illegal actions in a veil of secrecy.

Those that argue “these are different times” need to realize this argument is used every time there is a conflict in the United States. While Japanese-Americans were being shoved into internment camps, it was justified by saying “these are different times”. When our troops were being sent to fight a distant war in Vietnam, it was because “these are different times”. And when we launched a preemptive war in Iraq… you guessed it… it was because “these are different times.” Enough with this argument… it cannot be used to infringe on our civil liberties or the freedom of the press.

Thank you New York Times and other media outlets for participating in the checks and balances system that makes our country so great.