Quote of the Day: Flyover-State Yahooism

That's what Jonah Goldberg lists as one of two plausible motives -- at least according to the press -- for complaints about the revelation of secret government programs to fight terrorism (the other is Republican chicanery). Regardless of the motives, however, Goldberg rightly notes the spin that the press puts on any such criticism:

What infuriates me is how anybody who raises these criticisms is caught in a Catch-22. It works like this: The media gets to reveal anything it wants for any reason it sees fit in the name of “the people’s right to know.” But when the people, in their common sense, object to the disclosure of secret programs they expected their government to be conducting all along, the cognoscenti immediately ridicule the people for their ignorance. And when politicians or pundits echo the same concerns, the press immediately circles the wagons, declaring in its coverage and commentary that any such criticism is out of bounds, even un-American. It seems that for many of these people, free speech is a lot like government secrecy. Both are only legitimate when the New York Times says so.

So, if you're one of the hundreds of millions of Americans who think the New York Times should keep its big trap shut, you're a flyover-state yahoo. Or a Republican. Why? Because Bill Keller and his colleagues said so.