LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
December 31, 2015

The Wall Street Journal ran a detailed report this week on how the President of the United States used national security assets to spy on not only the prime minister of a friendly ally, Benjamin Netanyahu, but also members of Congress. This occurred during what was a political debate among Americans and the global community at large about how to address Iran’s nuclear program.  I have copied the story below in the event you missed it.

As someone concerned about our country and the survival of our democracy, I was surprised that the president would think it appropriate to spy on those members of a coequal branch of government.  This was during a time when expressing a view contrary to the president’s, whether by members of his own party, or foreign heads of state, was treated as toxic by the administration and its spokespersons.

Learning that finite intelligence resources were diverted from protecting us from physical threats, such as the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, to spying on those with views that differed with the president’s is disconcerting at best.

But what I also don’t understand  is why the Times devoted, as best as I can tell, so little attention to his abuse of executive power for political purposes. Looking on line today, I found but two brief wire service reports in the last seven days on the Times website.

Bias shows up in publications in a variety of ways.  Frank errors and misleading stories are the most obvious.  But what does one say about bias that shows up in avoiding a story?  Does the Times really believe that the President of the United States spying on Americans exercising their fundamental rights to free debate and governance, including members of the House and Senate, in what was a political dispute of existential import, is not worth investigating and reporting. Once again it seems the Times motto is, “All the news that fits our views, we print.”

John R. Cohn, MD
1015 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107