Leaks: Packaged for your approval

The recent attacks against the NY Times for its role in leaking information regarding the surveillance of financial records have certainly brought a blight to that newspaper, as well as other papers that picked up the story quickly. By making mention of the secret Treasury Department program, the Times brought the program itself under intense scrutiny, and may very well have made the prospect of curtailing terrorist activity that much harder.

Except for one minor, insignificant detail. As it turns out, the Treasury Department was fully expecting the leak, and even had a press plan in place for just such an occasion. Conveniently, this press plan was followed when the Times wanted to go to print with their article.

So what does this mean? Unfortunately, it means far too little. Especially in a world where the leaders of the strongest nations on the planet meet but can't come to a resolution about what to do concerning the Hezbollah/Israel conflict. Especially in a world where former political leaders can outright state that there should simply be a declaration of World War III, so that we can move forward accordingly.

But hey, maybe this means that, in a few short months, we'll see a report that Valerie Plame actually outed herself to Robert Novak in a press release. Actually, given the current administration's tendencies towards veiling the truth from the public, I'm surprised we haven't seen it yet.

But at least we'll be able to get commercials with breakfast, even if we leave the TV off.