Michael Barone offers some thoughtful analysis, taking off on Gabriel Schoenfeld’s essay that I covered a month ago.
…I’m not sure where I come out on this. Part of me says that a prosecution of the Times and its sources would be fully justified, probably more so than the prosecutions of Morison and Franklin. That part of me also tends to think that the Times, in its contradictory stances on the Plame and NSA disclosures, has been acting out of malicious political motives and in reckless disregard of the real security interests of the United States. So a prosecution would be a fair comeuppance. But part of me is also genuinely queasy about the prospects of prosecutions of the press, queasy about the possibility of selective prosecution if not now then in the future, queasy about giving prosecutors the task of determining which secrets are essential to the national security and which are just the results of casual overclassification, queasy lest the government by overclassification enforced by prosecution should unduly restrict the flow of information to the public.
The answer when there are grave risks on all sides is that everyone should act with caution and restraint. The Times hasn’t. It has recklessly brought this peril on itself. But that doesn’t mean that the government shouldn’t act with caution and restraint. I’m glad the decision isn’t mine to make. What’s your call?
Definitely RTWT.
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