Journalistic Ethics and Illegally Acquired Documents

Ed Driscoll, Jonathan Adler and Glenn Reynolds take the New York Times and other mainstream outlets to task for their decision to not republish the stolen emails from climate scientists on the grounds that they were illegally obtained and written with the expectation of being kept private.  After all, these outlets famously publish illegally obtained classified national security information at ...

A Secret the NYT Kept vs. Those It Did Not

Scott Johnson contrasts the NYT's silence on the David Rohde kidnapping to protect the safety of their reporter with "the Times's illegal exposure of the NSA terrorist eavesdropping program in December 2005, as well as its exposure of the Treasury Department's terrorist-finance tracking program in June 2006. Whereas the reporting of Rohde's apprehension may have endangered his life, the disclosure ...

Were There No Oil Spills From Katrina?

In the comments to my latest post on domestic oil production, in which I continue my skepticism over the benefits to more domestic oil production, a number of claims were made in the comments that raised some interesting issues. So I thought it might be worthwhile if I went ahead and investigated some of these claims and presented the ...

Rebuilding the UN from the Ground Up

Speaking of decrepit New York City landmarks, Mark Leon Goldberg reports on a major renovation of the 50-year-old United Nations building, which would have condemned "long ago if not for the fact that it falls under international jurisdiction." According to the UN News Centre, the current buildings are "plagued by leaks, safety violations and outdated systems." Somehow, that seems ...

McCain Beats Clinton in November, Diebold Reveals

In an embarrassing technical glitch, Diebold has accidentally released the 2008 election results early, revealing that John McCain will win with 48 percent of the vote. ONN has the video report: Of course, I told you this months ago. via Thoreau

Sex Scandals and Journalistic Standards

Howie Kurtz has an interesting piece on how mainstream media coverage of allegations of sexual misconduct have changed in recent years. It begins: When Gennifer Flowers held a news conference in 1992 to announce that she had carried on an affair with Bill Clinton, the New York Times devoted one paragraph of a news story to her charges. "I am ...

The Opposite of Taking the Boeing?

Via the LAT: After outing Apple for years, blog shuts downAfter a long battle with Apple Inc., a Harvard University senior said Thursday that he would shut down Think Secret, the website known for landing scoops about the company's latest products. Apple was peeved by the leaks and sued him in 2005. The site's demise prompted outrage from some Apple ...

Details Reported on the Israeli Raid on Syria (Updated)

More details have been reported on the raid conducted by the Israeli Air Force on a base in Syria on September 6: Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. The attack was launched with American ...

Gates: Diplomacy Route on Nukes in Iran, Syria

Blake Hounshell transcribes Secretary of Defense Bob Gates' comments about U.S. plans vis-a-vis Iran and Syria on yesterday's "Fox News Sunday." While Gates was "cagey" in his reply, using the required disclaimer that "All options are on the table," it's quite clear that military intervention is simply not in the cards for either set of problems. I continue to ...

Iran Bomb Talk: Jaw-Jaw, Not War-War

Blake Hounshell argues that the renewed speculation by some on the left that the United States is about to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities is misplaced. By rattling some sabers, but doing so in a deniable way, the Bush administration is trying to stiffen the spines of its European partners and the IAEA. The current goal is to ...

Rumsfeld Stopped Raid on Qaeda Chiefs in 2005

Donald Rumsfeld pulled the plug on a 2005 mission that might have taken out several top al Qaeda leaders for fear of alienating Pakistan, Mark Mazzetti reports in today's NYT. A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it ...

Libby Commutation Reactions

As one would expect, last evening's news that President Bush has commuted Scooter Libby's jail sentence has spawned a huge amount of controversy in the blogosphere, with some decrying it as the greatest outrage since Watergate and others complaining it didn't go far enough. From the Left: Nancy Pelosi: "The President’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence does not serve justice, condones ...

5 Myths About Scooter Libby

Carol Leonnig, who covers the federal courts for WaPo and with whom I had the pleasure of sitting during my brief stint covering the Libby trail, shoots down "5 Myths About Scooter and the Slammer." Her column will irritate both Libby's strongest supporters and most vehement critics. It's now rather clear that Libby lied to the grand jury about ...

CIA Black Op to Destabilize Iranian Regime

CIA sources have leaked to ABC News an alleged covert plan to destabilize the Iranian regime through non-lethal means. The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ...

Democrats Invite Valerie Plame to Testify

Valerie Plame has been invited to testify before Congress. About nothing in particular. Democratic lawmakers are eager to hear from outed CIA operative Valerie Plame as they try to make political fodder out of the 2003 leak scandal. Plame was scheduled to testify before a congressional committee Friday, but it was unlikely the hearing would offer any new information about the ...