Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds, on the issue of the New York Times leaking news that the government is monitoring bank transactions:

The founders gave freedom of the press to the people, they didn’t give freedom to the press. [NYT Editor] Keller positions himself as some sort of Constitutional High Priest, when in fact the "freedom of the press" the Framers described was also called "freedom in the use of the press." It’s the freedom to publish, a freedom that belongs to everyone in equal portions, not a special privilege for the media industry.

I think it is Reynolds who puts the media in some lofty position, not the NYT.  He seems to overlook the obvious: the media is the people.  Who actually runs the New York Times?  Who writes the stories?  Who owns the stock?  People.  A publishing entity doesn’t lose its constitutional "freedom of the press" protection simply because it is large, well-organized and successful (like the New York Times).

The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) proclaimed that "the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments." Similarly, the Constitution of Massachusetts (1780) declared, "The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this commonwealth."  This notion was carried into the Constitution by the founding fathers.  The New York Times may have printed something which exposed (yet another) dirty deed of the Bush Administration.  While it is probably an embarassment, it is precisely the safeguard that the framers envisioned.  As Thomas Jefferson preached, a government which cannot stand up to criticism and exposure deserves to fall.