Summarized -- At the Times, a Scoop Deferred

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/ 
AR2005121601716.html

The New York Times' revelation yesterday that President Bush  
authorized the National Security Agency to conduct domestic  
eavesdropping raised eyebrows in political and media circles, for  
both its stunning disclosures and the circumstances of its publication.

In an unusual note, the Times said in its story that it held off  
publishing the 3,600-word article for a year after the newspaper's  
representatives met with White House officials.  It said the White  
House had asked the paper not to publish the story at all, "arguing  
that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be  
terrorists that they might be under scrutiny."

The Times said it agreed to remove information that administration  
officials said could be "useful" to terrorists and delayed  
publication for a year "to conduct additional reporting."

...It also did not disclose that the information is included in a  
forthcoming book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and  
the Bush Administration," written by James Risen, the lead reporter  
on yesterday's story.

...He wrote that when the Times became aware that the NSA was  
conducting domestic wiretaps without warrants, "the Administration  
argued strongly that writing about this eavesdropping program would  
give terrorists clues about the vulnerability of their communications  
and would deprive the government of an effective tool for the  
protection of the country's security."

...And the paper satisfied itself through more reporting that it  
could write the story without exposing "any intelligence-gathering  
methods or capabilities that are not already on the public record."

...More recently, the Times has been scooped by the Los Angeles Times  
on a story that the U.S. military has been secretly paying to run  
favorable stories in the Iraqi media, and by The Washington Post on  
the revelation last month of a secret network of CIA prisons for  
terrorism suspects in foreign countries.

...The Post was in contact with senior administration officials  
before publication last month of its story on the CIA prisons.  But  
officials did not seek to stop publication of the article, only to  
remove information that could jeopardize national security, said  
Leonard Downie Jr., The Post's executive editor.

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