Signs At The Times

(AP)

Yesterday, the anti-New York Times crowd took to the streets, with "almost 100 people" gathering outside the Times' office to protest the newspaper's decision to publish information about government financial monitoring programs. The New York Sun reports that Caucus for America president Rabbi Aryeh Spero called for a boycott and prosecution of the Times, a newspaper that is only read, he said, by "snobs on the Upper West Side" and "trans-nationalists and cosmopolitans," who "think that they have had graduated from America and see themselves more as Parisians or something like that."

Among the protesters were men dressed as Osama bin Laden declaring their love for the Times, and a man with a shirt showing a mockup of the Times and the headline "Army To Land On Normandy Tomorrow!" There were also a group of counter-protesters present, who were separated from the Times critics by police.

Michelle Malkin, Atlas Shrugs and Allahpundit have pictures of the protest, and Gawker has some shaky video.

Times editor Bill Keller and others have said that Republicans are using attacks on the Times as a political tactic – Keller told Bob Schieffer that "it's an election year, [and] beating up on The New York Times is red meat for the conservative base" – and it should be noted that yesterday's event was co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Young Republican Club.

Brian Montopoli

Brian Montopoli is the national reporter and political analyst for CBSNews.com.

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