Reporters’ rights

AS usual, Tim Rutten wrote with professional style and persuasiveness [“A Nasty Turn in Criticism of Press,” May 6], yet I looked in vain for a key factor that neither he nor New York Times editor Bill Keller address: Who is qualified to determine what is secret?

In wartime -- and despite all the quibbling, we are in a war against a ruthless and diabolically clever foe -- there are secrets that are of enormous value to the enemy. I don’t think that anyone, including our most accomplished and sincere reporters, has the right to ferret out secret information and splash it on the front pages.

WILLIAM A. PACE

Rolling Hills Estates

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HOW typical of the conservative Wall Street Journal to accuse Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists of conspiring to sabotage this administration by revealing the truth. In a free society, it is the responsibility of journalists to keep us informed, especially when a secretive administration such as this one is in power.

Let’s not forget that two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists (during another secretive administration) exposed the Watergate scandal, a story that would have been kept under wraps if it had been up to the Wall Street Journal.

PHYLLIS LANDIS

Los Angeles

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IS Tim Rutten being disingenuous or simply stupid in trying to excuse the seditious behavior of left-wing journalists who disclose classified information by claiming we are not at war because “Congress has made no such declaration”? How many undeclared wars have we fought in recent years?

ARTHUR HANSL

Santa Monica