Times Watch in NY Post, Tackling "Bush's Law" by Reporter Eric Lichtblau
From Clay Waters' review of "Bush's Law": "Lichtblau is preoccupied with getting scooped. Check his response when it looked as if the Times wouldn't run the NSA story: 'Each tidbit that came out...set off fears in my mind, real and imagined, that the story would break publicly somewhere else, and my own paper would get beat.' A journalist who believed the Constitution was being massacred daily by Ashcroft & Co. was primarily worried another newspaper might expose the outrage first? Sure, save the American way of life -- just make sure my byline's on it."
Posted by:
Clay Waters
4/14/2008 1:59:32 PM
Sunday's New York Post featured a book review from Times Watch director Clay Waters of "Bush's Law" by the Times' Eric Lichtblau. That's the paper's Justice Department reporter, notorious for printing the sensitive details of classified terrorist surveillance programs on the front page of the Times. 
An excerpt:
Lichtblau may fancy himself another Bob Woodward, but there's little cloak-and-dagger here. A brief mention of meeting a source at a "coffee shop in the shadows of Washington's power corridors" won't send screenwriters rushing to their laptops.
Mostly, Lichtblau is preoccupied with getting scooped. Check his response when it looked as if the Times wouldn't run the NSA story: "Each tidbit that came out…set off fears in my mind, real and imagined, that the story would break publicly somewhere else, and my own paper would get beat." A journalist who believed the Constitution was being massacred daily by Ashcroft & Co. was primarily worried another newspaper might expose the outrage first? Sure, save the American way of life -- just make sure my byline's on it.
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