The Times They Are A Waste

This time these TIMES revealed details of a government effort to track global financial transfers. They declined a White House request not to publish a story about the government's inspection of monies flowing in and out of the country.

How do they justify diminishing the effectiveness of the program and possibly jeopardizing national security?

"It's a tough call; it was not a decision made lightly," said Doyle McManus, the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau chief. "The key issue here is whether the government has shown that there are adequate safeguards in these programs to give American citizens confidence that information that should remain private is being protected."

Treasury Department officials spent 90 minutes Thursday meeting with the newspaper's reporters, stressing the legality of the program and urging the paper to not publish a story on the program, McManus said in a telephone interview.

"They were quite vigorous, they were quite energetic. They made a very strong case," he said.

In its story, The New York Times said it carefully weighed the administration's arguments for withholding the information and gave them "the most serious and respectful consideration."

"We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use it may be, is a matter of public interest," said Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor.

To paraphrase The Beatles....Listen, Do you want to know a secret? These two rags are sure to tell!