From WNYC in New York, this is On the media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. This week, a staggering spy story. Robert Philip Hansen was apparently caught passing secret documents to the Russians.

The arrest of Hansen appears to have ended a 15-year career in espion. Robert Philip Hanson was apparently caught passing secret documents to the Russians.

The arrest of Hansen appears to have ended a 15-year career in espionage that may have resulted in the deaths of two Russian double agents. It was thoroughly covered by everyone, including the New York

Times. This put us in the mind of the last time that Times gave Star Treatment to an alleged spy.

It was March of 1999, and the accused was a scientist named Wen Ho Lee. Lee was suspected of passing American

nuclear secrets to China, and a series of articles citing unnamed officials condemned Lee. The man was

fired and jailed, but the charges never stuck. The newspaper

eventually offered a qualified apology. We thought it might be interesting to compare how the

Times handled both cases using a few key criteria. Like reference to place of birth, in its first

story naming Lee, the Times used the phrase Taiwan-born in the

first sentence and repeatedly in the stories that followed. In Hansen's case, the 18th paragraph

in a sidebar story mentions he was born in Chicago. As historical precedence. In Lee's case,

the Times cited two other Taiwan-born scientists who were

also suspected of spying, and another scientist named Lee, no relation, who was convicted.

Also the Rosenbergs. For Hansen, they cited Aldrich Ames. For hard evidence on Lee,

the Times mentioned two lie detector tests. The second suggested he was being deceptive.

The hard evidence on Hansen included incriminating letters, fingerprints on a garbage bag that

contained bribe money, and the fact that he was arrested minutes after he had dropped off a bag

of classified documents. The circumstantial evidence on Lee included his refusal to cooperate with investigators,

his wife's tendency to invite herself to gatherings at the lab with Chinese delegations,

official trips to China, and a reference to an unnamed scientist who used to take pencils

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