Legal Commentary

Paranoia At The NYTimes

By Big Tent Democrat

In an unintentionally revealing piece regarding the NYTimes' relationship with Wikileaks, NYTimes editor Bill Keller demonstrates his arrogance and obliviousness. While Keller implies that Julian Assange is an unbalanced paranoid because "Assange was openly contemptuous of the American government and certain that he was a hunted man[,]" Keller writes:

From consultations with our lawyers, we were confident that reporting on the secret documents could be done within the law, but we speculated about what the government — or some other government — might do to impede our work or exact recriminations.

(Emphasis supplied.) Paranoid much Keller? OF course, Keller's fears were not unreasonable. Nor were Assange's fears. Even paranoids have enemies.

What is most striking to me about Keller's article is the condescending superiority he demonstrates. For a newspaper who had a pretty lousy decade, Keller sure has a high opinion of himself and his newspaper. His contempt for Assange and Wikileaks is not hidden. Keller refers to the Times as part of the "establishment media" without irony and with pride. It sums up the viewpoint of the article and of Keller and the NYTimes in this area. Quite revealing.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 27, 2011 (boomark / email).