GOP bill targets NY Times

The Hill reported House Republican leaders are expected to introduce a resolution today condemning The New York Times for publishing a story last week that exposed government monitoring of banking records. The resolution is expected to condemn the leak and publication of classified documents, said one Republican aide with knowledge of the impending legislation.

It should also call for legislation enabling the reporters, editors, and publisher to face long prison time, and possibly even death, for publishing national secrets in a time of war.

The resolution comes as Republicans from the president on down condemn media organizations for reporting on the secret government program that tracked financial records overseas through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), an international banking cooperative.

I believe that we should call for a grand jury to question the reporters to reveal their sources, and proceed with criminal proceedings against the leakers. If the reporter refuses to reveal his source, put him in jail until he does.

Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.), working independently from his leadership, began circulating a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) during a late series of votes yesterday asking his leaders to revoke the Times’s congressional press credentials. The Standing Committee decides which organizations and reporters can be accredited, according to the rules of both the House and Senate press galleries. Members of that committee are elected by accredited members of those galleries.

I believe the agency, congress, or the White House should be able to say who can come into their press rooms, rather than the press, but at a minimum they should be able to control where people sit, and who gets called on, and I suggest the guy from the NYT needs to sit on the back row, and not get called on for the next year.