Friday, October 21, 2005
Mendicancy
The Times' star journalist-martyr, the Pinch-buddy reporter that required absolutely no editorial supervision (like Jayson Blair but much more so) and ignord it if she so deigned, provides the ultimate quote for this whole sordid affair:
“WMD—I got it totally wrong. The analysts, the experts and the journalists who covered them—we were all wrong. If your sources are wrong, you are wrong.”
So absolutely dead wrong. It was all out there for the least competent journalist to find. Tens of millions knew that the administration and its fellow travellers -- and water carriers in the media -- knew there were no WMDs. All there for a competent journalist to find -- if, of course, she wasn't more interested in being a water carrier for the administration.
WHY THIS WHOLE SORDID MESS MATTERS: There's a lesson to be learned (by those who are able to). The Times was dead wrong in backing Miller up and worse, doing it neither what they were defending or why.
A generation ago, the Timesman would be in the slammer protecting a source of info necessary for the commonweal. Judy went to jail to protect a government apparatchik using her to spread government lies to start an unnecessary war.
Can you discern the difference? Can you appreciate the difference? Our leaders at the Times obviously couldn't. And theres no reason to think they can.
Ideally, Pinch and Keller should go, but that touches on an issue for another time....
“WMD—I got it totally wrong. The analysts, the experts and the journalists who covered them—we were all wrong. If your sources are wrong, you are wrong.”
So absolutely dead wrong. It was all out there for the least competent journalist to find. Tens of millions knew that the administration and its fellow travellers -- and water carriers in the media -- knew there were no WMDs. All there for a competent journalist to find -- if, of course, she wasn't more interested in being a water carrier for the administration.
WHY THIS WHOLE SORDID MESS MATTERS: There's a lesson to be learned (by those who are able to). The Times was dead wrong in backing Miller up and worse, doing it neither what they were defending or why.
A generation ago, the Timesman would be in the slammer protecting a source of info necessary for the commonweal. Judy went to jail to protect a government apparatchik using her to spread government lies to start an unnecessary war.
Can you discern the difference? Can you appreciate the difference? Our leaders at the Times obviously couldn't. And theres no reason to think they can.
Ideally, Pinch and Keller should go, but that touches on an issue for another time....
Website Counters
