Buried in Sunday's New York Times (Page A16) was a 10-inch story about the discovery that dozens of military officials and defense contractors -- some with top secret clearance -- have been downloading child pornography. (It was a story originally reported by the Boston Globe.)

You'd think this would get a little more attention. Not only is this a crime in which children have been victimized, but government investigators said the suspects also put the Defense Department "at risk of blackmail, bribery and threats."

Not only is the Times coverage meager, the government's response to the discovery has been pretty spotty. Several of the suspects were prosecuted and sentenced to prison terms of about five years. But others were never prosecuted, in some cases because the government cited "lack of resources."

Where's the media outrage?

Of course, had this happened in the Catholic Church, the response would have been dramatically different. Under Church law, a priest's use of child pornography is considered full blown sex abuse — punishable with removal from ministry and laicization.