Billmon: "To me, the New Pravda's role in the Iraq debacle resembles

[understandinglife]

... the part played by William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal in the far more successful Spanish-American War. It was Hearst, after all, who cabled a Journal photographer in Cuba: "You supply the pictures; I'll supply the war." Which was roughly the same instructions that the Pentagon gave Judy Miller. Both were true to their word. Which at this point, is more than you can say for the New York Times.

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In other words, thanks to office politics -- and Bill Keller's sense of proper corporate etiquette -- America's "paper of record" essentially ignored its own role in publicizing what was either (or both) the biggest foreign policy con job since the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, or the worst intelligence debacle since Pearl Harbor.

This is a remarkable confession. Keller has openly admitted that when push came to shove, the New Pravda's committment to honest, objective reporting simply wasn't as important as maintaining the paper's internal bureaucratic "equilibrium." And so the minor scandal (Jayson Blair) became the excuse for ignoring the major one -- the one that helped lead the country into a disastrous war. Telling the truth, as Keller puts it, would have been "unsavory."

Personally, I think this deserves a hell of a lot more than Calame's rather milktoast censure...

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From The New Pravda's Lost Year by Billmon on October 23, 2005

Link:

http://billmon.org/archives/002290.html

So do I.


Peace.

[bryant69]

1. That's well worth considering

It's really unfortuante what the times has done to itself the last few years - well nearly a decade now.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Cha]

2. Thanks, billmon!

"Fair shake? For those of us who shook with rage as we watched the corporate media -- and the New Pravda in particular -- dance around their own role in hyping the WMD threat, even as casualties piled up in Iraq, that doesn't even begin to cover it."

Yeah, we sure as hell didn't get a "fair shake" and neither did our kids in uniform or the non-combatant Iraqis..but I'm sure the paper of record wasn't thinking about them.

[funflower]

3. Jayson Blaire was a failure to supervise. The Iraq/WMD news blackout

was a conspiracy by the people who run the Times to curry favor with the Bush Administration by turn a blind on the biggest foreign policy con job since the Gulf Tonkon Resolution.

[KoKo]

4. Thanks for the post! Billmon, Digby, Steve Clemons and Josh Marshall..

have become regular reads for me...but I can't always keep up with them every day...all at once. I missed Billmon's latest so it's a treat to see your post. Adding Dan Froomkin's Washington Post Blog...and it's all I need to know to keep up to date. Plus the great news posts and discussion here on DU, of course. :D It's always good to see these posts from Blogs that are good reads.