Here's to Freedom of Speech . . .

and to Michael Gordon who has surrendered his at the insistence of his employer, that bastion of freedom, the New york Times. I hope his drink tastes as watery and flat as his abject apology for expressing his own "purely personal view" when asked. Why, if this blatant support of our troops isn't crushed ruthlessly, the Times' campaign to dishearten the American public and bring about the worst and most pointless surrender in the history of the republic could fail. Maybe the ACLU would agree to stand up for Gordon's rights, if he hadn't already surrendered them.

Here's what Gordon said on The Charlie Rose show:

“So I think, you know, as a purely personal view, I think it’s worth it [sic] one last effort for sure to try to get this right, because my personal view is we’ve never really tried to win. We’ve simply been managing our way to defeat. And I think that if it’s done right, I think that there is the chance to accomplish something.”

I'm sure Mr. Rose's viewers will be gratified that his guests from the New York Times will not feel free to answer his questions honestly, but only give the official line of the paper's opinion dictators.

Update: Here's how the NYTimes "reports" a victory by the good guys. HT: Best of the Web. Taranto also mentions the Gordon incident and notes another case where a Timesian expresses his personal opinion on Rose's program but got no reprimand. Of course, he was in no danger of getting out of lock step with the Editors.