Arthur Fede and the New York Times

Sanctimony at the New York Times has gone to hilarious extremes as they report the firing of reporter Jim DeFede for having (illegally) taped a conversation with Arthur Teele, the Miami commissioner who was facing criminal charges (see Poliscum) and killed himself in the lobby of the Miami Herald.

You really have to search hard for the high ground on this one, and the New York Times does the ethical toe stretch.

The newspaper's management is staunchly defending its action, and Mr. DeFede's dismissal is making waves as a stark example of the extreme measures by newspapers to appear beyond ethical reproach.

To understand the deviousness of the Times you have to understand that the Miami Herald has shielded crooked politicians for decades and it was an open secret that Arthur Teele was not quite, as they say, kosher. The black politician was popular with his constituents, so much so that when he died, the Knight Ridder newspaper sent a sort of sympathy card to their readers, lest they think the Miami Herald had anything to do with his suicide. The Herald had not, mind you, printed any part of the story that caused his last phone call to DeFede. Another newspaper had the courage to do that. The Miami Herald might have hinted at Teele's shady dealings, but they don't deal dirt on dirty politicians in Miami unless it gets too outlandish - like when the elected mayor was a drug dealer. They real reason they fired DeFede because he brought the body home, literally and figuratively. Now they will have to explain the contents of that last 25-minute phone call that DeFede taped and explain why they never printed the story.

In the murky politics of Miami, Arthur Fede was a Republican, but he was just another crook shielded by just another newspaper. In the murky canyons of New York, the New York Times continues to politicize another story that makes miscreats look better and clouds the facts so the public can't draw the conclusions they ought to.

THEN AND NOW Of course, things were different when a Florida couple illegally taped a telephone conversation between Newt Gingrich and other Republicans and gave that tape to Jim McDermott (D-Oregon) so he could hand it over to the New York Times to print. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) sued McDermott and won. As the judge ordered McDermott to pay $60,000 and legal costs that could reach $545,000, he had harsh words for McDermott.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan said McDermott's "willful and knowing misconduct rises to the level of malice in this case."

At the time of the leak, McDermott was the ranking Democrat on the Ethics Commission. Alice and John Martin, the Democrat operatives who taped the conversation tried hard to sound like innocents. The couple were, according to CNN, "Democrats and active in the National Education Association." That story has conveniently died.

UPDATE: More apologies from a Miami Herald journo. And, amazingly, this editorial by the Herald.