Why did the media group expose the government project to track down terrorist?

Question

I heard on CNN that a New York times journalist exposed a secret project that the government use to track down terrorists, and protect the U.S. citizens. Are journalist given to much freedom, and are they against America for exposing top secret information used on the war against terrorism. It angers me seeing that media groups making it more difficult for our government to do their jobs, and protecting American citizens. And thanks to the media terrorist now know how we are tracking them. Journalist are one of the main problems that America seems to have. What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

NY TIMES are liberals, evil people.

Answer 2

Because the project went against what America stands for. The terrorists aren't stupid: they know we're tracking them.

The problem isn't the fact that we're tracking them, it's the lack of oversight in tracking them. The Bush adminstration isn't willing to have these programs overseen by either the courts or Congress in order to protect the rights of the average American. This project, while it may have begun with good intentions, may set a precedent for future programs whose intentions are far from good, and the lack of oversight means that the potential for the rights of the individual citizen to be violated will be very high.

Just saying that "we're at war" doesn't make it right, either. Technically and legally, we are not at war because we haven't declared war since World War II. So the Bush administration has no greater power to intrude upon the privacy of citizens than previous adminstrations had during peacetime. They have to submit to the same governmental oversight as prescribed in the Constitutional system of checks and balances.