Quote of the Month - July

This is the original Bill Keller quote from the interview with CBS that Michelle Malkin made semi-famous.

“…if you're under the impression that the press is neutral in this war on terror, or that we're agnostic—and you could get that impression from some of the criticism—that couldn't be more wrong. We have people traveling on the front lines with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We've had people who've been murdered in trying to figure out the terrorist threat. You know, we live in cities that are targets, proven targets, for the terrorists. So we—we're not neutral in this.”

Bill Keller, the editor of The New York Times, is obviously not clear on the situation. The Times does not need to “figure out the terrorist threat,” it needs to report what is going on. The terrorist threat was figured out on (and before) 9/11. Government officials are the ones who figure out what terrorists are up to, and The Times is not helping that effort at all by revealing the ways in which we fight terror, and thereby helping the murderers of those Times reporters that Keller was talking about.

Of course you always have that last clause: “…we’re not neutral in this.” Keller does not specify which side he is on, if he’s not neutral. It certainly is not clear that he’s on the American side, since he’s published nothing that congratulates our forces or helps them. There’s also nothing to signify that he’s not on the terrorist side, since he uncovers national secrets to the advantage of organizations like Al-Qaeda.