Time Reporter Who Wrote Horrifying Afghan War Cover Story-"Benefited Materially From The Invastion"

[kpete]

With Its Horrifying Cover Story, Time Gave the War a Boost. Did Its Reporter Profit?

By John Gorenfeld
August 12, 2010 | 1:09 p.m


The maimed face of 18-year-old Aisha, her nose and ears cut off as punishment by her Afghan husband for fleeing his home, made the cover of Time magazine last week and changed the debate over the country's military involvement in Afghanistan. Hitting stands just as a growing chorus of pundits and lawmakers had begun to question the costs, the goals and the point of the country's longest war ever, the gut-punch cover image, beneath a stunningly blunt coverline conspicuously missing a question mark — "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan" — and accompanying story by Aryn Baker, the magazine's Afghan/Pakistan bureau chief, gave a boost to supporters of America's continued military involvement in the country.

But there was more than a question mark missing from the Time story, which stressed potentially disastrous consequences if the U.S. pursues negotiations with the Taliban. The piece lacked a crucial personal disclosure on Baker's part: Her husband, Tamim Samee, an Afghan-American IT entrepreneur, is a board member of an Afghan government minister's $100 million project advocating foreign investment in Afghanistan, and has run two companies, Digistan and Ora-Tech, that have solicited and won development contracts with the assistance of the international military, including private sector infrastructure projects favored by U.S.-backed leader Hamid Karzai.

In other words, the Time reporter who wrote a story bolstering the case for war appears to have benefited materially from the NATO invasion. Reached by The Observer, a Time spokesperson revealed that the magazine has just reassigned Baker to a new country as part of a normal rotation, though he declined to say where.

While Baker, traveling in Italy, did not respond to Observer.com's request for comment, Time defended its cover story as "neither in support of, nor in opposition to, the U.S. war effort" but rather a "straightforward reported piece." Time added that "Aryn Baker's husband has no connection to the U.S. military, has never solicited business from them and has no financial stake in the U.S. presence in Afghanistan whatsoever."

more:
http://www.observer.com/2010/media/its-horrifying-cover-story-time-gave-war-boost-did-its-reporter-profit?page=0

[joeybee12]

1. Time has been crap for quite some time now...

hopefully this is the nail in their libelous, right-wing jackassery coffin.

[Octafish]

2. The corruption of journalism reaches a new low.

Warmongers for all TIME.

Now what was it that Carl Bernstein wrote about Luce and the CIA?

[unblock]

3. i am shock that there are any profiteers in such a noble war.

shocked, i tell you.



:sarcasm:

[G_j]

4. that is a substantial disclosure

a bit late..

[kenny blankenship]

5. Sleazier and sleazier!

This is worse than the Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, and Janet Cooke scandals put together. It just takes your breath away. No matter how jaded you think you are, they can still come up with a travesty of journalism or government that leaves you slapping your forehead and feeling like a rube, the mark who just wised up after his last dollar was lifted.
How? How could I have ever believed them?

[malaise]

6. Surprise

NOT

[kenny blankenship]

8. What a way for brand name print journalism to go out , huh?

Hey guys, for our last issue, let's completely debase our credibility and smear our medium with pornographic sensationalism, "Remember The Maine" yellow journalism and rampant material conflicts of interest in one unbelievably foul and false cover story! Let's wrap everything wrong with us all up in one stinking bundle. Let's top the worst thing we've ever done by an order of magnitude, while we still can, and let's take a giant dump on the credulity of the American public, before they carry us all out of here in pine boxes. It could be our very last chance to validate the trust placed in us for so many years.

[alsame]

7. It's always about money. Always. nt

[gratuitous]

9. But Time magazine itself said it wasn't making a case for or against

They just wanted to indulge a little "Mooslims are going to break into your homes and eat your puppies" style sensationalism.

Time has been suspect in some people's eyes since they gave Whittaker Chambers a spot on the masthead.

[Blue Owl]

10. The very definition of "propaganda"

Doesn't get any plainer than that.