Jill Abramson on putting the public interest first

[Commentary] During the Bush and Obama Administrations, I dealt on more than a dozen occasions with requests from the White House that [the New York Times] not publish stories based on classified national security leaks. When the Times was asked to withhold information from readers because of national security concerns, such requests almost always involved difficult editorial decisions. There was always a difficult balancing test on what and whether to publish, in which reporters and editors weigh the concerns of the government against the press’ duty to inform the public. Is the public better off knowing about the government’s secret massive eavesdropping programs? The answer is an unqualified yes. Has publication of these stories harmed national security? So far, the government has offered scant evidence that it has.

[Jill Abramson is a former Executive Editor of The New York Times]