Why must these Old Media dinosaurs always cry "censorship" every time someone calls them to the carpet for their irresponsible acts? If anyone is attempting to chill someone else's speech, it is they. If censorship means simply criticizing speech, then they are guiltier than everyone else put together, because they will not tolerate criticism of their own speech and lash out against their critics.

They need to dismount their high horses and acknowledge that the freedom of speech is neither absolute nor a license for seditious or other irresponsible behavior. Not all speech is constitutionally protected, and some can even be criminal -- such as perjury -- or an essential element of criminal activity, such as all kinds of conspiracies, including conspiracy to commit murder.

Keller and Baquet wrote, "We understand that honorable people may disagree with any of these choices -- to publish or not to publish. But making those decisions is the responsibility that falls to editors, a corollary to the great gift of our independence. It is not a responsibility we take lightly. And it is not one we can surrender to the government."

Similarly, Nicholas Kristof wrote, "We face a fundamental dispute about the role of the news media in America. At stake is the administration's campaign to recast the relationship between government and the press."

These gentlemen seem to be arguing, essentially, that all final judgments concerning what the Old Media withhold and what they release are the prerogative of the Old Media alone -- absolutely unchecked, no matter the consequences. Presumably because the First Amendment and our entire library of liberties would vanish otherwise, they want the unfettered freedom to publish classified, sensitive national security secrets even if it will help our enemies to kill us. That is breathtaking.

No one is suggesting the media surrender their responsibility to the government; nor is the administration trying to recast the relationship between government and the press.

But we are suggesting they don't confuse betrayal with responsibility and that they truly act responsibly instead of abetting the enemy and damaging the American people in the name of helping them.