Government or Administration?

Don Luskin makes an excellent point about Bill Keller's jaw-dropper:

Here's New York Times executive editor Bill Keller's justification for exposing the US Treasury's secret methods for tracking terrorist money-flows, and thereby aiding and abetting terrorists:

"...the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use it may be, is a matter of public interest."

Note that he's talking about "the administration's" access to the data, not government's access. In other words, if any story can colorably create the impression that this administration -- this Republican administration -- is abusing information on citizens, then the "public interest" in the Times making that argument overrides all other considerations of protecting the life and limb of those same citizens.

The NY Times reveals that it sees itself, not as a counterweight to government, but rather as an opponent of this administration.