NYT's mea culpa over Wen Ho Lee

John Halle john.halle at yale.edu
Tue Sep 26 19:16:56 PDT 2000


This was, all in all, a win-win result.

First, when one considers what an appropriate punishment should be for building weapons for a terrorist state, a few months in solitary confinement seems about right. FAlready, according to Amy Goodman, several top scientists are considering quitting Los Alamos in protest.

Plus we get the spectacle of Hedrick Smith criticizing the "usual" imposition of cruel and unusual punishment in for profit prisons. Isn't it odd what happens when non-black people get caught up in the system. Former New York Chief Justice Saul Wachtler who paid for his flamboyant acts of passion with a few years in the slammer has come out big time for penal reform as did Charles Colson a few year back and various other Watergate felons.

Then the Times gets exposed for the low rent scandal sheet it really is. Incidentally, by having a few paleo-rightists, a la Gerth, John Tierney, Walter Goodman and Safire-around to keep the fake liberals in check, they're taking a stategy from the old Encounter playbook, as was discussed in Stoner wonder recent book-The Cultural Cold war. So you had Irving Kristol and Leslie Fielder constantly baiting the Spender pansy-liberal contingent thus insuring that the center never gets criticized by the left.

A good day for the good guys all in all.

Best,

John Halle



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list