In 1943, an American company that distributed Nazi and Japanese propaganda on behalf of supporters of the enemy regimes would not have been politely asked by a US Senator to reconsider -- it would have been summarily shuttered by the government and its owners prosecuted under statutes that banned aiding the enemy. I may be wrong, but I suspect that the New York Times would have wholeheartedly supported such a move.

My how things change. Today it has condemned the last pro-American Democrat in Washington as a "would-be censor" for seeking to prevent an American company -- YouTube (which regularly pulls down anti-jihadi videos because of complaints by Muslim groups) -- from hosting and distributing pro-terrorist Islamist videos while our troops are engaged in combat against these forces who would impose Muhammad's malignant message upon the world by force.

The Internet is simply a means of communication, like the telephone, but that has not prevented attempts to demonize it — the latest being the ludicrous claim that the Internet promotes terrorism.

Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is trying to pressure YouTube to pull down videos he does not like, and a recent Senate report and a bill pending in Congress also raise the specter of censorship. It is important for online speech to be protected against these assaults.

Mr. Lieberman recently demanded that YouTube take down hundreds of videos produced by Islamist terrorist organizations or their supporters. YouTube reviewed the videos to determine whether they violated its guidelines, which prohibit hate speech and graphic or gratuitous violence. It took down 80 videos, but left others up. Mr. Lieberman said that was “not enough,” and demanded that more come down.

Earlier this month, the Senate homeland security committee, which is led by Mr. Lieberman, issued a report titled “Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat.” The report identified the Internet as “one of the primary drivers” of the terrorist threat to the United States.

All of this comes against the backdrop of a troubling Congressional antiterrorism bill that also focuses on the Internet. The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, which passed the House last year by a 404-to-6 vote, would establish a commission to study the terrorist threat and propose legislation. The bill, which the Senate has not acted on, has a finding that the Internet promotes radicalization and terrorism.

In other words, it is now official -- the New York Times has come out in favor of putting seditions, even treasonous, speech ahead of national security in time of war. Those who oppose treason are the enemy; traitors, enemies abroad, and those who distribute their words in America and around the world are latter-day heroes working to preserve free speech -- despite the fact that free speech is one of the very things that the Islamists are committed to destroying (along with Jews like the Sulzbergers, who own the NY Times). Unbelievable!

Closing question -- has this editorial finally crossed the line that will allow the government to make the NY Times register as an agent of al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups?

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