Did the New York Times really sell out America's national security in order to hype an upcoming book by the Free Press? That's the accusation leveled by Senator John Cornyn after last Friday's article by reporters Eric Lichtblau and James Risen about President Bush's clandestine authorization of wiretaps without warrants (which they followed up yesterday with recent historical context). "The author of this article turned in a book three months ago," Cornyn charges, "and the [Times] failed to reveal that the urgent story was tied to a book release and its sale by its author."

Of course, the book's "sale by its author" actually took place 18 months ago, as noted in the deals section of Publishers Marketplace. But is the story tied to the release of Risen's State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration, which the Free Press originally announced for publication this fall? It seems counterintuitive that the Times would hype a book published by anyone other than Times Books, even if it is written by one of their staffers... especially when 'everyone knows' there's no need for the news sections of the paper to lift a finger to help any book by any of its reporters, as a prominent review in the Book Review seems inevitable.