The Decline of a Once decent Newspaper

It is not every day that, before our eyes, a once decent newspaper goes so off the deep end that it forces a precipitous decline for which there may not be a recovery.
During World War II, the Los Angeles Times ran many stories about the conflict with the tag line "Cleared by military censors." That is when the Times and much of the American media understood who the enemy was and supported President Franklin Roosevelt and the war effort.
The military did, infact, censor many stories so that the enemy, Germany, Italy and Japan, did not know anything.
That was because we knew we were in a war.
Today, President Bush walks the fine line between the fact we are in a war that the type we have not been in before. But, so that the economy does not go into the tank, we often do not emphasize that we are in a war with an enemy even more brutal than the World War II Axis powers.
And that is why the New York Times and Los Angeles Times feel it is ok to publish stories that clearly give the enemy full knowledge of what we are doing to fight through all legitimate, yet in this case secret, means.
The Los Angeles Times does not really believe this is a war. Or maybe they do not like the fact we are fighting back against radical Islam. Since they are the enemy of the West and especially the United States, they must be ok.
That is all that one can assume by the response that Washington bureau chief Doyle McManus gave in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt (www.hughhewitt.com) show yesterday.
At least Mr. McManus gave an interview with an adversarial voice. The managing editor of The New York Times, Bill Keller, went on CNN for the softball questions.
The Los Angeles Times was once called a "right wing rag" by its critics, but once they changed direction in the 1960s, it was praised by the likes of the New York Times and Washington Post and the big three broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. Talk about an "Axis of Evil." !
Now, the Los Angeles Times is nothing but a left wing rag that seems hell bent on destroying itself from within. While it is at it, it will try to ruin the war effort at every turn.
For President Bush, he needs to talk more and more about not just the war in the Iraq theatre but Afghanistan and world wide so that not just the American people, but the world knows that we are serious.
Maybe then, the declining Los Angeles Times and its allies will understand that it is not about bringing down any given presidential administration, but being prudent, to quote another President Bush. It means not publishing any story in hopes that this President Bush will be brought down.
There is something called patriotism. The Los Angeles Times could practice it sometime.