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All the news [and editorial] fit to print?

The NY Times is published under the well-known banner "All the News Fit to Print".

There are many aspects of the Times which can be called into question. Apart from not being as far-reaching in reporting news from around the world - or its lack of judgment, as recently the subject of debate, in having Ethan Bonner as its Bureau Chief in Jerusalem - the latest eye-raising issue is in relation to a recent editorial.

truthout reports in "New York Times' "Mystery" Op-Ed Calls for More Afghan Civilian Deaths":

"On Thursday, The New York Times made an astonishing editorial choice, for which its editors owe the public an explanation: it published an op-ed by an obscure and poorly identified author attacking Gen. Stanley McChrystal for his directive last July that airstrikes in Afghanistan be authorized only under "very limited and prescribed conditions." The op-ed denounced an "overemphasis on civilian protection" and charged that "air support to American and Afghan forces has been all but grounded by concerns about civilian casualties."

The author of the op-ed, Lara M. Dadkhah, is identified by The Times merely as "an intelligence analyst." In the body of the op-ed, the author identifies herself as "employed by a defense consulting company," without telling us which company, or what her relationship might be to actors who stand to lose financially if the recognition that killing civilians is bad for the United States were to affect expenditures by the United States military.

As Glenn Greenwald asked in Salon:

What defense consulting company employs her? Do they have any ties to the war effort? Do they benefit from the grotesque policies she's advocating? What type of "analyst" is she? Who knows ... it's virtually impossible to find any information about "Lara Dadkhah" using standard Internet tools."

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