How to stop the New York Times II ... (UPDATED & Additions)

NOTE: If you think all or some of these ideas are good ones, please link this post and spread the word. In order to make any of it work, we need to spread the word and generate major publicity both in the blogosphere and within government and media circles. Everyone can help. PERMALINK for this post. TRACKBACK for this post. Additions of blogs are listed in their alphabetical order, all other updates are under UPDATE below.

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So Patterico has canceled his subscription to the LA Times, Marc Dansinger does too. Several bloggers have indicated they have canceled their subscriptions to the New York Times. Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO's The Corner has decided not to re-up her weekend subscription. I suppose if enough people cancel, they will see a blip, but I see this more as a statement than as an actual tool to hurt the newspapers where it matters. But, Tom Maguire says, "I don't see how the Times can be stopped."

My suggestion is to take a multi-pronged approach.

First, stop linking to either paper. And most especially, stop linking to anything behind a "pay" wall such as Times Select.

Second, start demanding that major news outlets, especially TV cable news outlets, stop using the New York Times as their primary source for news. I'm sick of always hearing, "according to the New York Times," aren't you?

Third, demand that our government, and most especially the White House, pull the press credentials for the New York Times and the LA Times too, if you believe them to be equally guilty. End all cooperation with them and all their media, no interviews, no credentials. Anyone meets with or talks to them, they lose their job or get demoted or counseled. Treat all contacts between their reporters and government officials as we would contacts with foreign agents.

Fourth, hit them in their pocketbooks with their advertisers. I wouldn't go after the advertisers directly. Instead, I suggest a national campaign that asks the public not to patronize any advertiser who runs an ad in any newspaper or on any TV station that puts terrorist interests above the safety and security of the citizenry of the United States.

Fifth, find the quality newspapers and TV outlets that can move into the slots vacated by the NYT, the LA Times and dare I say it, the Wall Street Journal. If they are quality but have been struggling to make it against the big boys, throw the blogosphere weight behind them. Of course, I would like to see news outlets with a more libertarian or conservative bent get the nod, but partisanship should not be the criteria. Instead, make national security the criteria and make this a "citizen" issue rather than a political one.

Sixth: And it should go without saying, that the blog world needs to demand of DoJ that leakers be found and prosecuted. My suggestion would be to start with Larry Johnson and that whole rogue ex-CIA and VIPs group first and work out from there.

If you have other suggestions or think these need modifying, let me know.

The following is a link list of those proposing various suggestions on how to deal with news outlets who "aid and give comfort" to enemies of the United States by revealing classified information during a time of war. This list is only a start and there are many blogs who have expressed an opinion about the NYT article, but do not offer any suggestions in current posts. And although I may agree, I don't think wishing the NYT would get blown up by terrorists is a very productive suggestion, nor is tar and feathers for Bill Keller, Risen or Lichtblau. We will update as we find more.

Ace of Spades Impose an immediate ban on any government official in any security-oriented agency from speaking to the NYT. They're already forbidden from disclosing national secrets; but apparently that doesn't matter to them. So just make it a firing offense to even be seen talking with a NYT reporter.

The Anchoress People who see all sources of information as equally good will, in time, drop those that cost money. I no longer subscribe to any newspapers at all. I can get everything I want on the Internet for free. The NYT has to make clear it’s value proposition to the consumer. My bet is that they are positioning themselves as being the only news media large enough to uncover government scandals. They are appealing to the fear that in their absence, government agencies will run wild with corruption and deceit. The San Diego Union is currently running just such an ad campaign.

And Another Thing (Mark Levin) The shareholders who own stock in the corporations that own the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal need to become active in demanding that their employees stop giving strategic assistance to terrorists.

Austin Bay "What should be done? The intel program has been compromised; loose lips have sunk this ship. Al Qaeda isn’t the smartest of enemies but many of its  global financiers are sharp– they will change their m.o.  US and coalition intelligence agencies will have to be creative and agile. The Bush Administration should prosecute the leakers, but I don’t think the Administration has the spine for this."

Barking Moonbat Early Warning System I propose that Congress drag the editors of the NY Slimes before an investigating committee and grill the asshats to find out by what authority they assume the power to keep the terrorists overseas and in sleeper cells here in the US so well informed about attempts to track them down and bring them to justice. Personally, I don’t feel a great need to stay informed as to how the work is being done to keep me safe and alive. All I care about is that it is being done. Perhaps the NY Slimes needs to see another 3,000 dead Americans before they decide to act responsibly? I certainly hope not ...

Democracy Project "What is required is new legislation that broadens the existing U.S. Code to include all matters of national security, applicable to all present and former government employees and officials, Congressional members and staff, and the media, coupled with confidential prior judicial consideration and enforcement mechanisms, and strict prosecution of those not abiding." This is an excellent article, I would encourage everyone to read it.

Flopping Aces EMAIL THE NYT’S AT [email protected] AND THE LA TIMES HERE.

GOP Bloggers "Tell the DoJ to finally get serious about prosecuting those responsible for illegally revealing national security secrets." [email protected]

Hugh Hewitt "... let's have some new hearings on the federal press shield law. If the papers really believe they deserve it, let them send their editors to defend that. proposition." Hugh has several posts on this topic and is also covering it on his radio show.

In the Bullpen "Just as there should be in the other cases before, there should be prosecutions in this case."

Powerline "The Times purports to invoke the rule of law where no law has been broken, and where the Times itself has both broken the law and damaged American national" security.

Protein Wisdom I'll take this as a "go ater the leakers" suggestion. "... the real violation of trust here—namely, that leakers within our intelligence agencies are jeopardizing national security, and that both the leakers and those publishing the leaks (whose aim, clearly, is to gin up whatever outrage they can with the hope of undermining this Administration’s tactics for conducting a war they don’t believe truly exists), are doing so with impunity."

The Strata-Sphere "What is criminal here is not the Bush administration investigating terrorists (we want that), and it is not the administration giving US citizens or people here in the US any special bye’s when their information comes up as part of these terrorist investigations, it is the out of control liberal media which exposed this against the warnings of the admininstration. When will the madness end in DC with all these leaks? How much are votes worth to these people?"

Strategy Page "Because the war on terror is fought in a peacetime atmosphere, treason can be presented as dissent, and you can get away with it. Case in point is the energetic pursuit, and publication, of  U.S. intelligence gathering techniques, by the American media.  ...... These traitors will continue to get away with it. Unless their activities are shown to assist terrorists in a particularly direct and obvious way ..." Another very good article.

The Wide Awakes "For the sake of security, let’s tell the media to shut the hell up."

Wizbang " hope other subscribers to the LA Times and the New York Times do the same so as to communicate to these organizations that their publishing of classified antiterror programs in an effort undermine the Bush administration will cause them to take an even bigger hit in their subscription rates."

Related:

SWIFT statement on compliance policy

Fighting illegal uses of the financial system

New York Times Refuses to Hold Surveillance Story

Mr. Keller Believes You Are Easily Confused This is Hugh Hewitt's fisking of Bill Keller's attempt to explain why he became a traitor. Unfortunately Keller's letter sits behind a NYT registration wall, so I will not link to it here, but if you must, you can get the link from Hewitt's fisk. (We have covered this in a separate post HERE.)

UPDATE:

Rep. King Seeks Charges Against Papers Over Terror Reporting

Sunday, June 25, 2006

WASHINGTON  — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration on Sunday to seek criminal charges against newspapers that reported on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.

Rep. Peter King cited The New York Times in particular for publishing a story last week that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records.

King, R-N.Y., said he would write Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging that the nation's chief law enforcer "begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times — the reporters, the editors and the publisher."

"We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous," King told The Associated Press.  [CONT'D. HERE]

This is a start. Let's all let Congressman King know we  support such an investigation and a few emails to Gonzales wouldn't hurt either.

And from comments, Clarice Feldman offers these three suggestions worth considering. I like all of them:

-- Publish the names of the stockholders and their contact information.
-- Ditto the NYT's major advertisers. All the blogs can run these.
-- Publish the names of the papers, TV stations the NYT owns and urge that people in those areas boycott them as well.

                More Photoshopping of the New York Times HERE >>>>>>

Comments

[Clarice]

Publish the names of the stockholders and their contact information.
Ditto the NYT's major advertisers. All the blogs can run these.
Publish the names of the papers, tv stations the NYT owns and urge that people in those areas boycott them as well.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

Clarice -- great suggestions. The NYT wants sunshine, let's give them sunshine.

[vivi]

1. Cut up the department store charge cards of NYT, LAT advertisers and mail them with a note to the chairman. copy the VP of national advertising at the NYT.
2. if you have NYT stock, go to the annual meeting and kick up a stink. write letters to the board, too....

[archtop]

Hi,

This is my first time posting here. Great site.

My answer to the liberal media is to try totally remove them from my daily life (i.e. dropping cable and unnecessary newspaper subscriptions). I also avoid doing business with entities related to the big media (such as AOL). I also tell people *why* I don't subscribe to big newspapers or cable. I think the more we make our feelings known to friends, family, and others around us, the faster we'll see news organizations will be held up with contempt by the public at large. Then we'll finally see them feel it in the pocketbook...

By the way, I always refuse free newspapers at hotels when I'm on a business trip (I call it my "refuse the news!" campaign), and tell them to donate the money spent on my newspaper to a local charity. I imagine if a lot of people did this, we could raise a lot of money for charity that would otherwise get wasted on newspapers. I recently sent a letter to the Hampton Inn hotel chain complaining about the "free" USA Today (barf), and in their response they appeared to understand my position - perhaps we'e making some progress on this front!

[megan]

the only way to get the Times attention IS to go after the ADVERTISERS... personally - - it is not a boycott of sorts, it is merely finding the business that is not advertising and I prefer to do my business there... Getting the advertisers to notice is the only way to change things

[William Grubb]

FEELING GUILTY LAT??

According to Doyal Mcmanus of LAT, his paper was still talking to AG Gonzalez office when this story appeared on NYT Online. This is from Mcmanus on an NPR Friday 9 a.m. morning talk show, presumably implying the NYT was solely responsible for breaking this story. It sounded like he knew this was a big no no before it was even news. How do they sleep at night?