NY Times Controversy: Tony Snow’s Smack Down of the National Review

I’ll give President Bush’s new press secretary credit for this:

But he added that, no matter what the National Review argues, the Times will not be losing its White House credentials.

The Editor&Publisher account begins with:

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told E&P today that The New York Times deserves the brunt of criticism for disclosure of a secret bank records monitoring program, even though two other newspapers – The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times – reported the same story at almost the same time.

Do you get this call for going after the New York Times more than the Wall Street Journal? Could it be that the Times is seen as a liberal organization while the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal is considered rightwing?

Now how did my home town newspaper (the LA Times) escape the wrath of the rightwingers? Could this be the reason why my home town newspaper lowered its high standards by having Jonah Goldberg publish some of his op-eds on its pages? Insurance comes with a price.

Hat tip to the rather upset KLo.

Finally, I’m listening to Lou Dobbs telling me that Orin Hatch’s attempt to desecrate the Constitution got only 66 yes votes and 34 no votes. Hatch tried to argue that his proposed amendment would not outlaw any expression of free speech, which is very dishonest. It’s whole purpose was to allow the Congress to do just that even if the First Amendment says Congress cannot. MSNBC has more.