[Infowarrior] - Media Refuses to Hold Surveillance Story

[Richard Forno]

Media Refuses to Hold Surveillance Story
Jun 23 12:23 AM US/Eastern
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/06/23/D8IDMQ180.html
By JUSTIN BACHMAN
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK

The Bush administration and The New York Times are again at odds over
national security, this time with new reports of a broad government effort
to track global financial transfers.

The newspaper, which in December broke news of an effort by the National
Security Agency to monitor Americans' telephone calls and e- mails, declined
a White House request not to publish a story about the government's
inspection of monies flowing in and out of the country.

The Los Angeles Times also reported on the issue Thursday night on its Web
site, against the Bush administration's wishes. The Wall Street Journal said
it received no request to hold its report of the surveillance.

Administration officials were concerned that news reports of the program
would diminish its effectiveness and could harm overall national security.

"It's a tough call; it was not a decision made lightly," said Doyle McManus,
the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau chief. "The key issue here is
whether the government has shown that there are adequate safeguards in these
programs to give American citizens confidence that information that should
remain private is being protected."

Treasury Department officials spent 90 minutes Thursday meeting with the
newspaper's reporters, stressing the legality of the program and urging the
paper to not publish a story on the program, McManus said in a telephone
interview.

"They were quite vigorous, they were quite energetic. They made a very
strong case," he said.

In its story, The New York Times said it carefully weighed the
administration's arguments for withholding the information and gave them
"the most serious and respectful consideration."

"We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this
vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted
use it may be, is a matter of public interest," said Bill Keller, the Times'
executive editor.

In December, Bush used part of his weekly radio address to criticize The New
York Times' initial eavesdropping story as helping to inform enemies, saying
"the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security
and puts our citizens at risk."

McManus said the other factor that tipped the paper's decision to publish
was the novel approach government was using to gather data in another realm
without warrant or subpoena.

"Police agencies and prosecutors get warrants all the time to search
suspects' houses, and we don't write stories about that," he said. "This is
different. This is new. And this is a process that has been developed that
does not involve getting a specific warrant. It's a new and unfamiliar
process."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.