If New York Times executive editor Bill Keller “were to be tried and convicted of treason” for the publication of an article about a Treasury Department program designed to monitor international financial transactions for terrorist activity, radio talk show host Melanie Morgan said that she “would have no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In the past 11 months, Morgan has appeared six times on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews (6/26/06, 10/21/05, 8/19/05, 8/16/05, 8/11/05, and 8/1/05). As Media Matters for America noted, in her latest appearance on Hardball on June 26, she declared: “I see it [the Times transactions story] as treason, plain and simple, and my advice to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at this point in time is chop-chop, hurry up, let's get these prosecutors fired up and get the subpoenas served, get the indictments going, and get these guys [Keller and other New York Times employees] behind jail.” In addition, Morgan has also appeared on at least three Fox News programs in the past year -- The Big Story with John Gibson (5/31/06), The O'Reilly Factor (7/5/05), and Hannity & Colmes (8/22/05).

Morgan's statement in the Chronicle was first noted by the Poynter Institute's Romensko and The American Prospect's Greg Sargent.