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From the diaries -- kos)
Jonathan Alter at Newsweek breaks the story of Bush's personal appeal to Sulzberger and Keller to spike the Times NSA-gate story:
No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on December 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president's desperation.
Desperation indeed. A pathetic attempt at intimidation, too.
The Times - once again - needs to come clean here:
- Was this the only personal discussion between the leadership of the Times and Bush about this story?
- On what basis did the President argue that the story should not be published on Dec. 6th?
- Did the arguments differ from those advanced by the White House a year ago, when the publishing of the article was supposedly postponed due to administration concerns?
- Did the Times make any editorial concessions as a direct result of this Dec. 6th meeting?