| If Manning had connected with The Times, we would have honored any agreement to protect his identity, though Manning was not so good at covering his own tracks. (He spilled the story of his leaking in long instant-messenger chats with an ex-hacker, who turned him in.) Once he was arrested, we'd surely have editorialized against the brutality of his solitary confinement -- as The Times has already done -- and perhaps protested the disturbing overkill of the "aiding the enemy" charge. (If Manning's leak provided comfort to the enemy, then so does every news story about cuts in defense spending, or opposition to drone strikes, or setbacks in Afghanistan.) Beyond that, we'd have made sure Manning knew upfront that he was on his own, as we did with the last leaker of this magnitude, Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame. |
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At www.nytimes.com
At www.nytimes.com
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