Excerpt:
The Associated Press has always had a place in the heart of The New York Sun, in whose newsroom the wire was founded in 1845. The publisher of the Sun at the time, Moses Yale Beach, was the AP's prime organizer. The cooperative wire wasn't his only invention; Beach secretly built the first subway in New York. Moved by pneumatic power, it traveled a block. For all our affection, though, it's hard to imagine the visionary editor, a booster and defender of New York, countenancing two centuries later the AP's campaign against the intelligence operation the city has launched to protect itself against the next attack by radical Islamists.
The AP started its series on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It issued a long expose suggesting the NYPD has been overly aggressive in pursuing our enemies. It was particularly upset that the police had entered a partnership with the Central Intelligence Agency that, in the wire's view, has "blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying." We said at the time that right reaction to the story is would be to "stand the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, up in a prominent position and drape him with the highest medals our city and our nation can bestow." We don't take any great credit for that view; it's widely shared.