Newspapers Reject Government Request to Kill Story

Give credit where credit is due. This took guts.

Newspapers Reject Government Request to Kill Story:

"NEW YORK The New York Times and Los Angeles Times on Friday published a major story on government surveillance of private banking records over the objections of the Bush administration.

The same team that produced the Pulitzer-winning National Security Agency (NSA) 'domestic spying' program, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, put together the New York Times' piece. In the middle of the article, they reveal that the White House had asked the paper not to run it. This had happened with the NSA story as well, and the Times put off running the pair's key findings for a year.

'We know the terrorists pay attention to our strategy to fight them, and now have another piece of the puzzle of how we are fighting them,' Dana Perino, a White House spokesman said late Thursday. 'We also know they adapt their methods, which increases the challenge to our intelligence and law enforcement officials.'

Perino added: 'The president is concerned that once again The New York Times has chosen to expose a classified program that is working to protect our citizens.'"