Politico practices JOURNALISM! Bad Newsweek, bad

[kpete]

Politico practices JOURNALISM! Bad Newsweek, bad
by Julie Gulden
Jan 02, 2010 at 02:15:10 PM PST
Newsweek's BIG EXCLUSIVE! Wow!

Exclusive: Obama Got Pre-Christmas Intelligence Briefing About Terror Threats to 'Homeland'

Ah Newsweek, you got our attention, didn't you? It was even mentioned in a comment in this diary why Obama is screwed, referring to the Newsweek article.

Here is part of their BIG EXCLUSIVE
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/02/white-house-advisor-briefed-in-october-on-underwear-bomb-technique.aspx


Mark Hosenball
President Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the U.S., NEWSWEEK has learned. The briefing was centered on a written report, produced by U.S. intelligence agencies, titled "Key Homeland Threats," a senior U.S. official says.

The administration official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, says that nowhere in this document was there any mention of Yemen, whose affiliate of Al Qaeda is now believed to have been behind the Christmas Day attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a transatlantic airliner with a bomb hidden in his underpants. However, the official declined to disclose any other information about the substance of the briefing, including what kind of specific warnings, if any, the president was given about possible holiday attacks and Yemen came up during oral discussions.

The senior official says that beginning in early December, based on reports coming in from intelligence agencies, policymakers had begun tracking a stream of information that alluded to a possible holiday-period plot against the U.S. orchestrated from somewhere in Pakistan. However, the official says, this reporting later turned out to be "garbled," and it was determined that the threat was probably a washout. The official denies that the White House received any report, representing the consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies, warning that a holiday-period plot originating in Yemen and targeting the U.S. homeland could be in the works.

There are several more paragraphs, dancing about the topic. A whole lot of drivel, or maybe its dribble.

Then, along came Politico....Mike Allen
http://www.politico.com/playbook/http://www.politico.com/playbook/

WEST WING MINDMELD: Did the President have a briefing on December 22 on holiday threats? You bet he did. He demanded it. The holidays are traditionally a time of increased threat reporting and the President wanted to be sure his team was on top of that reporting -- doing the fine work it had done, for example, on the Zazi and Headley cases earlier in the year. In fact, the President demands regular counterterrorism and homeland security briefings that bring together the whole team representing the heads of the government agencies charged with intell and homeland security. Did the December 22 briefing include a warning of an attack? No. It did not. And despite the provocative headline on his story, the Newsweek reporter does not report that there was one. Because he couldn't. Because there wasn't.

A round of applause for Mike Allen!

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/2/821358/-Politico-practices-JOURNALISM!-Bad-Newsweek,-bad

[tularetom]

1. How bad does it suck when politico is the one who gets it correct?

Newsweek of course has become a crappy rag, but I never thought it had sunk to the level where its reporting had to be corrected by drudge lite politico.

I'll be the first to say it - a stopped clock is right twice a day. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.

[L0oniX]

2. ...not as bad as Fox getting it right ...uhm ...does that ever happen?