Run That Particular Mainstream Media Principle By Us Again, Will Ya?

"We are very relieved that our New York Times colleague escaped safely, and this episode has ended happily," said AP Senior Managing Editor John Daniszewski [about the escape from Afghan captivity of David S. Rohde]. "It was an unusual and difficult news judgment to withhold reporting on his abduction, but our practice is to avoid transmitting stories if we believe they endanger someone's life."

They avoid transmitting such stories, that is, if the stories endanger the life of a specific individual (or two) with a human face and (therefore) with a compelling backstory (who, in addition, happens to be a colleague).

However, the mainstream media's practice is not to avoid transmitting stories if they "merely" endanger national security as well as the lives of faceless American servicemen and, incidentally (therefore), faceless American civilians in general… (Although, of course, there may be some slight change in this attitude during the reign of the Anointed One and of any other Democratic president…)