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I've seen a few things get buried in quick analysis of Wolf Blitzer's interview with NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller, and I'd like to highlight a very odd aspect of his statements. As I e-mailed Allah at Hot Air, Wolf Blitzer explicitly asked Keller, "who were the three outside of the administration who asked you not to report this information," and Keller named "Murtha" as one of the three.

But earlier in the conversation, Keller said, "I'm happy to tell you who I spoke to, but I'll leave it to them to tell you what they actually said," and prior to that he said "Three people outside of the administration were asked by the administration to call us ... all of them spoke, they thought in confidence, and I don't think I'll, I don't think I'll breach the confidence of what they said, um, uh, although I will say that not all of them urged us not to publish."

There are two major pieces of information to take from this:

1. Not all of the 3 individuals who spoke to the Times urged them not to publish. Since two of them are essentially on the record as asking the Times not to publish via the word of Treasury Secretary Snow, Murtha was the one who "did not urge them not to publish."

2. Keller states that the three individuals "were asked by the administration to call us," essentially stating that someone in the Executive briefed John Murtha about the impending publication and asked him to call the Times to intervene.

Assuming that Keller's statement is accurate, I don't know who's crazier: John Murtha, for urging Keller to expose the program (or at least not trying to stop him), or the fool in the Bush Administration who assumed that Murtha would be a rational advocate, prioritizing national security over his very severe case of BDS.

Of course, my assessment wholly relies on the accuracy of an editor of the New York Times, so, apply massive grains of salt to taste.

UPDATE: Re: "massive grains of salt." A Freeper commenter makes a valid point:

Has anybody considered that Keller is flat out lying and just trying to cover his pathetic ass for this travesty. I think Keller and the Times are taking enormous heat on this.

Or implicitly distorting the nature of the conversation with Murtha ...

That is a consideration. Note that he did not say that one of the three urged him to run the story, rather that "not all of them urged us not to publish." This is a mildly relevant distinction. Not having been there nor being omniscient, I can't say for certain.

Posted by Bill at June 27, 2006 08:25 AM | TrackBack (0)

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