WaPo Editor Offers Idiotic Defense For Treason

While Dana Priest, the Washington Post post reporter at the center of the Mary O. McCarthy CIA leak scandal refused to comment to her own newspaper about the story, one of the Post's executive editors offered this remarkably obtuse excuse for McCarthy's partisan:

Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said people who provide citizens the information they need to hold their government accountable should not "come to harm for that."

Now, think about that. Downie is actually advocating trying to run a government in which not a single bit of data can reasonably be expected to remain confidential. Downie doesn't explain what disclosures match his criteria for "holding their government accountable". Evidently, those determinations are up to any of the hundreds of thousands of government employees who are privy to classified information.

Presumably, based on the WaPo's history, any revelation that can be used to damage a Republican administration is "sharing information" and holding the government accountable. Revelations that damage Democratic politicians or support Republicans are "leaks" that are betrayals of public trust.

Are you a CIA officer pissed off because the candidate you donated $2000 to lost the Presidential election? Disregard your oath, your secrecy agreement, and the law, and hold the government accountable by leaking classified information! Leonard Downie Jr. has given his okay.

Cross-posted at The Jawa Report, Vince Aut Morire, and Stop the ACLU.