All the news that’s fit to read elsewhere UPDATED

:::UPDATE:::
BlueCrab Boulevard finds that England had no problem reporting on the material the NY Times said they could not. Interesting. Sad.

:::END UPDATE:::

The NY Times continues its inexorable slide into utter irrelevance:The New York Times’ Web site is blocking British readers from a news article detailing the investigation into the recent airline terror plot, turning its Internet ad-targeting technology into a means of complying with U.K. laws.

“We had clear legal advice that publication in the U.K. might run afoul of their law,” Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty said Tuesday. “It’s a country that doesn’t have the First Amendment, but it does have the free press. We felt we should respect their country’s law.” [emphasis added – admin]

Visitors who click on a link to the article, published Monday, instead got a notice explaining that British law “prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial.” The blocked article reveals evidence authorities have in the alleged plot to use liquid explosives to down U.S. airliners over the Atlantic.

I don’t get it. If it’s a country with a free press, what’s the problem here, NY Times?

Blue Crab Boulevard has some thoughts: “…this is supposed to be the mighty defender of the free press and the right of the people to know. And this is what they are doing? Blacking out news based on where you come from? Anyone else see the deadly danger this presents?

The New York Times has the potential to turn the whole world into China. Think about it. This a particularly bad move on the part of the Times.”

I get the distinct impression that the NYTimes considers itself a sovereign state unto itself, able to do as it pleases and answerable to no one. Not even, it seems, the stockholders, who cannot be happy.

Blue Crab has more on the actual details of the bombing plot, btw. Sticky Notes wonders why the NY Times is so fastidious about UK’s case, while caring nothing for classified info in America.