The media, the military, and striking the right balance. (Opening Argument).(military response to September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks)

This war will severely test the inherently uneasy relationship between the government--especially the military and the media. The chafing has already begun. While the Bush Administration so far seems largely to have avoided the outright deceptions practiced by its predecessors, it has exhibited an unhealthy impulse to control the news by leaning on the media not to publish enemy "propaganda." And while much of the news coverage has been superb, some journalists have exhibited a reckless indifference to endangering military operations and the lives of our soldiers, and a reflexive hostility toward the military.

If we are going to get this right, the government must not resort unnecessarily to secrecy or to lightly tarring independent journalists as disloyal. The media should not frivolously cry "censorship." And each should work harder to understand the views and accommodate the needs of the other.

The delicacy of the task is exemplified by the Administration's requests that the media filter public statements by Osama bin Laden and his fellow mass murderers before airing them. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice took a small but worrisome step down a slippery slope when she urged network executives not to broadcast bin Laden videos without first reviewing and editing them down to brief excerpts. Although her warning that bin Laden might be sending coded messages in…