L.A. Times in Heavy Spin Mode re Spilling State Secrets

Saturday morning's L.A. Times headlines "Officials Defend Bank Data Tracking."

The article would be more appropriately headlined "L.A. Times Defends Disclosing Top Secret Government Program."

Six paragraphs in: "Disclosure of the arrangement by The Times and other media outlets prompted complaints from privacy advocates overseas and in the United States."

What, no mention of the outraged complaints against the media by government officials, bloggers, and others?

The Times next quotes a member of the European Parliament who says the U.S. data collection program "makes me uncomfortable."

How hard did the Times have to search for that uncomfortable European politician to back up the Times' leaking, when the paper couldn't find a single U.S. politician dismayed (or "uncomfortable") by the Times' decision to publicize a top-secret program? The paper doesn't get around to quoting a U.S. politician until the last half-dozen paragraphs of the story, when they mention Senator Richard Shelby saying the program doesn't give cause for concern.

Nowhere in the article does the paper mention any of the numerous people who spoke out in the blogosphere or media Friday against the Times' release of classified data.

But wait, there's more! The Times also throws in a complaint by someone from the World Privacy Forum, "a San Diego research group," who worries the data "can be kept forever and used for other purposes without oversight."

The paper then goes on to spin the President taking advantage of "the altered mood" after 9/11 to collect banking and telecommunications data, with virtually no explanation of why this might be useful to catch terrorists -- the paper just provides a detailed explanation of how the program works.

So much for thorough journalism and covering both sides of a story.

Spin, spin, spin...