Noon: Did NYTimes Do Right Thing?

At the downtown office this afternoon, Editor Gary Graham (pictured) will lead a newsroom discussion about the acknowledgement by the New York Times this week that it concealed the news that one of its reporters had been held captive for seven months. Gary primed the discussion by sending out this e-mail a few minutes ago: ” If one of our staff members is kidnapped by a radical group, should we withhold that information from the public? I’m referencing, of course, to the New York Times case of the reporter who had been held hostage by the Taliban. The Times, AP and other organizations withheld the news because their security advisers said it would exacerbate the problem.”

Question: Did the New York Times, AP, and other news organizations do the right thing by withholding the news?