Probably you and I just have different ideas of what an acceptable compromise is. If the request were to use news paper instead of parchment, or to bleep out profanity on basic cable channels while on primetime (which I personally think is stupid, but I might as well start suggesting that people raise their own children), or if the request were to blur graphic images of mutilated bodies under the same circumstances -- I might, after a bit of thought, decide that those were reasonable compromises.

But that's not what this was.

This was the U.S. "asking" a foreign journalistic organization to be less critical of U.S. activities -- and that organization agreeing. This really should be bone-chilling, not just a reasonable compromise.