Is the Press Endangering the Nation?

Editor's Letter: The White House has attacked newspapers for revealing details of U.S. surveillance tactics. But no one — the President or the press — has a blank check

The tension between liberty and security is as old as the Republic--and as new as the latest high-tech listening device. In wartime, that tension very often plays itself out as a battle between the White House and the press. It is doing so again now. The script is ever the same: the White House asserts it is the protector of our security; the press maintains it is the guardian of our liberty. * The stories in the New York Times and other newspapers about the government's highly classified program to monitor bank records have provoked outrage from the White House. President...

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