WaPo editor rebukes reporter for stating obvious

Reporters can no longer repeat what's already been widely disseminated by military analysts - provided it's not favorable to you know who.

The executive editor of the Washington Post, Leonard Downie Jr., has rebuked one of his Pulitzer-Prize winning reporters for suggesting on television that Israel was purposely leaving Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon "because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations."

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The reporter in question, Thomas Ricks, is the author of a new book, "Fiasco," sharply critical of the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq.

On the August 6 episode of CNN's Reliable Sources, Mr. Ricks said that "one of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon."

When CNN's Howard Kurtz asked if Mr. Ricks was "suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of its firepower, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here," Mr. Ricks agreed that he had heard that from "military analysts."

"I have made clear to Tom Ricks that he should not have made those statements," Mr. Downie wrote to Mr. Koch.

Mr. Koch compared Mr. Ricks's statements to the "the age-old blood libel."

Mr. Ricks told The New York Sun, "The comments were accurate: that I said I had been told this by people. I wish I hadn't said them, and I intend from now on to keep my mouth shut about it."

Reporters can't think for themselves. They can't speak for themselves. They can't act for themselves. Exactly what kind of freedom is this?