When we read John Podhoretz’s comment to Hugh Hewitt about the Times’ SWIFT disclosure (“many more people than we know are deeply concerned and confused by the Times’ decision”), we suddenly had an inkling as to perhaps why the Times published its findings timely, instead of waiting as requested by the administration. How about this: the Times did not want to be scooped again by withholding the story, as it almost was in the case of the Risen NSA story. The NYT only published that former story when it became clear that their reporter was going to reveal it in a book a few weeks later.

(You will recall that at the time of the publishing of the Risen / Lichtblau story on SWIFT, we said that it read like a chapter in a longer book; we have not changed that opinion.)

They may smile at the Times as they explain their higher calling, and say lofty things about great duties and deeds past, but perhaps their motivations were merely crass and commercial: they didn’t want to get burned twice by their own reporters. HT: Powerline.

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