AS A reporter, I have gotten more bum steers than a bankrupt rancher.
And this is why I cannot grasp the self-flagellation of the New York Times’ massive mea culpa yesterday.
On Page 2 of that august, gray, decent but fading lady, they took a hard look at the way they reported the Wen Ho Lee “espionage” case.
If it was an apology for being wrong, they would join me because, brothers and sisters, have I been wrong.
I was the guy who said Justin Volpe was innocent in the Abner Louima outrage.
This was based on the fact that I knew the 70th Precinct, Volpe’s great dad, and three other decent and innocent cops involved who wouldn’t spit on a sidewalk.
Was I wrong on Volpe? Oh, yes.
But in the Wen Ho Lee case, it wasn’t a reporter’s mistake. It was the Times management who made a mistake.
So if you read the Times’ meaculpa, you will understand that it was indulgenza totale – total indulgence.
It was as if the reporters and the editors made a mistake, not the New York Times itself.
Bloody hell it wasn’t.
The reporters trusted officials, federally employed officials. Now, I am old enough and ugly enough to know something about the feds.
The Justice Department’s Janet Reno, architect of the Waco disaster, either knew about Wen Ho Lee or thought 59 charges would fit just fine.
But what bugs me about the Times’ apologia is simply that the paper criticized its own editorial staff.
Management screwed up, then blamed the ink-stained wretches.
The Times’ arrogance was assaulted by a few officials in Washington who blamed the paper for stoking hysteria in the Wen Ho Lee case.
It was a series of bad dinners at the best tables for the pooh-bahs and the management of the Times.
Godliness had suddenly abandoned them. Not to mention dinner invites.
The story was legit, as far as federal officials told the very good reporters who worked on the story.
If the story blew up in management’s face, don’t make it a case of “Oh, we are the New York Times, and those reporters are just our wanton slaves.”
I have a lot of problems with the New York Times – its pathological liberalism, quiet support of partial-birth abortion, and pomposity that approaches Marie Antoinette.
But I won’t have them blaming journalists for their lust for blood.
In the case of Wen Ho Lee, he admits to downloading thousands of highly confidential files into an unsecured computer.
That is a little like me going through my editor’s personal desk, and when caught, saying I was just looking for a pencil.
Wen Ho Lee has admitted to something very naughty, even if I don’t think, or know, that he’s a spy.
Bottom line: The New York Times management felt its arrogance of goodliness and godliness was assaulted.
Did they apply the same standards to the ever-impeachable Bill Clinton, this bunch of management bums?
Of course they did not.
But they jumped when Clinton said Lee’s detention “just can’t be justified,” making the management of the New York Times a Benedict Arnold to their own reporters.
Resignations upcoming?