Stop With the Leaks!

I wrote a blog post some years ago about the lack of ethics demonstrated by many media outlets when publishing national security stories. I indicated that while mediots have the First Amendment right to publish the information they dig up, there needs to be some kind of ethical examination of the story, and a consideration about the lives it could harm.

A few years ago, the New York Times published a piece that pointed out weaknesses in the individual body armor of our troops in Iraq.  The report referenced in the piece was not released to the public for obvious reasons: it gave the enemy a nice little roadmap for the most effective killing of US troops.  The NYT was asked nicely by the Pentagon not to publish this piece – that it would put American lives at risk – while we worked to get the troops better protected.

Michael Moss didn’t care, and neither did the NYT.  They published the information anyway for the enemy to exploit. I wonder how many Americans lost their lives because of it…

There’s got to be some balance between the public’s right to know and the obligation to report responsibly, so that no lives are endangered!

The media obviously will not take these issues into consideration. The New York Times in 2006 did not care that they were publishing sensitive information that could get U.S. troops killed.