Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Newspaper of Record?
Yesterday the New York Times ran a front-page piece about the alleged disappearance of 380 tons of HMX and RDX high explosive from a site in Iraq known as al-Qaqaa, while the site was under US control. John Kerry lost no time in exploiting the purported misfeasance by the Bush administration in his campaign speeches. Last night, MSNBC reported that its reporters embedded with the 101st Airborne Div. in Operation Iraqi Freedom saw no sign of the explosives when the US soldiers first arrived at the base.
The National Enquirer has learned the hard way -- defending defamation cases -- to verify its facts before publishing. The Times would do well to learn the same lesson.
Wretchard at Belmont Club provides his usual astute analysis.
Today Cliff May at The Corner said that "The Iraqi explosives story is a fraud." His source in the government says it is a deliberate falsehood issued by the IAEA head Mohammed El Baradei in an attempt to unseat Bush.
I guess Newsweek's Evan Thomas was right when he said the MSM wants Kerry to win. Money quote from the link:
That was from back in July. Interesting how things have gone since then, isn't it?
Bottom line: How will we ever again be able to trust the MSM to give us straight news?
NBC News: Miklaszewski: “April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qakaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon. In a letter this month, the Iraqi interim government told the International Atomic Energy Agency the high explosives were lost to theft and looting due to lack of security. Critics claim there were simply not enough U.S. troops to guard hundreds of weapons stockpiles, weapons now being used by insurgents and terrorists to wage a guerrilla war in Iraq.” (NBC’s “Nightly News,” 10/25/04)A publication claiming to be the national Newspaper of Record should not have left itself open to this kind of rebuttal. It's clear that they didn't fact-check the story. The spirit of Jayson Blair is alive and well in the NYT, it seems.
The National Enquirer has learned the hard way -- defending defamation cases -- to verify its facts before publishing. The Times would do well to learn the same lesson.
Wretchard at Belmont Club provides his usual astute analysis.
Today Cliff May at The Corner said that "The Iraqi explosives story is a fraud." His source in the government says it is a deliberate falsehood issued by the IAEA head Mohammed El Baradei in an attempt to unseat Bush.
I guess Newsweek's Evan Thomas was right when he said the MSM wants Kerry to win. Money quote from the link:
MR. THOMAS: There's one other base here, the media. Let's talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win and I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox. They're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic and there's going to be this glow about them, collective glow, the two of them, that's going to be worth maybe 15 points.
That was from back in July. Interesting how things have gone since then, isn't it?
Bottom line: How will we ever again be able to trust the MSM to give us straight news?
Comments:
Post a Comment
