NYT Editor Bill Keller, Intellectual Lightweight

Bill Keller, Executive Editor of the New York Times, has published a response to those who have written him about the paper's decision to publish our country's classified program to link terrorists with banking records.

Keller absurdly writes:

"Some of the incoming mail quotes the angry words of conservative bloggers and TV or radio pundits who say that drawing attention to the government's anti-terror measures is unpatriotic and dangerous. (I could ask, if that's the case, why they are drawing so much attention to the story themselves by yelling about it on the airwaves and the Internet.)"

Let me get this straight. The New York Times publishes information which completely compromises a top secret counterterrorism program, and then has the nerve to suggest that the paper's critics are drawing more attention to the story by discussing it?

What an interesting angle to use to attempt to silence criticism. It's hard to find adequate words to even begin to respond to such buffoonery.

For more, read Hugh Hewitt's lengthy response to Keller's missive.

Monday Update: Scott Johnson of Power Line: "Hugh's gloss on the letter is charitable; based on the letter, he could also have posited that Mr. Keller is stupid. That too might explain the letter's sheer failure to address the Times's placing itself above the espionage laws of the United States. Mr. Keller is probably not stupid, but there is not a single sentence of his lengthy letter that could be quoted to disprove the hypothesis that he is."