How else to interpret this prolonged whine from “editorial observer” Adam Cohen?

During the War of 1812, an angry mob smashed the printing presses of a Baltimore newspaper that dared to come out against the war. When the mob surrounded the paper’s editors, and the state militia refused to protect them, the journalists were taken to prison for their own protection. That night, the mob broke into the prison, killed one journalist and left the others for dead. When the mob leaders were brought before a jury, they were acquitted.

The editorial observes that Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America still provides “[great] insight into contemporary American democracy” — specifically, the insights that “he knew of no country with ‘less independence of mind and true freedom of discussion’ than America,” and that “Tocqueville would not have been distracted by all the talk that warrantless wiretaps, indefinite detainment of enemy combatants and other civil liberties incursions are serving the cause of freedom. He understood that the newest incarnation of despotism was likely to be ushered in by the ‘avowed lover of liberty’ who is a ‘hidden servant of tyranny.’”

Poor NYT: always a heartbeat away from having their 43rd St. offices besieged and their printing presses smashed by angry Bush supporters retaliating against their brave dissent. If only America was a country where “true freedom of discussion” was possible, then they might not be afraid to tell us what they really think.