…No, actually, the AP demonstrated professional ethics. Twice.

The Associated Press reports today that it learned last week of a thwarted Al Qaeda-affiliated plot to bomb a U.S.-bound airplane, but did not report on it because of an agreement with the White House and the CIA. However, the AP did decide to report the story one day earlier than the White House had requested.

“The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way,” the AP’s Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman report. “Once those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.”

The first part, of course, was the AP held off on reporting that there was a counter-intelligence operation in place to stop an al-Qaida bombing plot until after arrests were made (and thus not tipping off the bad guys). The second part? Ignoring the White House’s ‘request’ to hold off publishing the story until the administration was ready to milk the maximum amount of publicity from doing what is, essentially, its job.

I don’t know which part is more noteworthy, really. I suspect that I do know which part the Obama administration considers to be more important, though.

(Via Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt)

Moe Lane (crosspost)