More For Foer

Eric Alterman let's slip a little tidbit in his Think Again column in The Nation:

The New York Times held its story on domestic spying for more than a year and published it only when it became apparent that it would appear in a book by its reporter James Risen.

Here I was actually going to give the NY Times a teeny bit of credit (well, in my mind anyway) for finally doing the right thing, resisting White House pressure, and publishing the news of Bush's illegal domestic wiretaps....finally. If Alterman has this correct, and there's no reason to believe he doesn't, they only published the story because Risen had a book coming out that would scoop them.

Aside from the obvious reinforcement of the image of the Times as a self-serving co-opted institution, this sorta renders moot Franklin Foer's rant against the negative attitude by the "liberal bloggers" towards the Times good deed, now doesn' it.