-----Original Message----- >From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> >Sent: Feb 3, 2007 1:43 PM >To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Bullying Iran - New York Times > >Andreas wrote, of the New York Times and Washington Post's coverage of >the war in Iraq that > >> [a]fter several years of reporting the war as a success, it became clear >> it was a fiasco. Only then did both papers finally printed long >> articles to apologize for their failures in journalism. That is the >> response to Robert's request for evidence: the NYT and Washington Post >> both admitted and apologized. > >That cannot be the answer to my question for Irene, viz., what >evidence do you have that the NYT is 'beating the drum' for going to >war with Iran? > Let me repeat yet again: As far as hard evidence, I'm going on their miserable reputation for factual reporting and for their nonfact driven pro-war bias. I asked you to supply evidence that they are offering reasons to tone down the administration's rhetoric regarding war with Iran. Since you have supplied none, the conclusion is that the zebra has in fact not changed its stripes. History repeats itself. Consider journalism, to wit the NYT, and the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261 [Begin excerpt] Why such inaccurate news coverage? Wells points to the media's "almost exclusive reliance on U.S. government officials as sources of information" — as well as "reluctance to question official pronouncements on 'national security issues.'" Daniel Hallin's classic book The "Uncensored War" observes that journalists had "a great deal of information available which contradicted the official account [of Tonkin Gulf events]; it simply wasn't used. The day before the first incident, Hanoi had protested the attacks on its territory by Laotian aircraft and South Vietnamese gunboats." What's more, "It was generally known...that `covert' operations against North Vietnam, carried out by South Vietnamese forces with U.S. support and direction, had been going on for some time." In the absence of independent journalism, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution — the closest thing there ever was to a declaration of war against North Vietnam — sailed through Congress on Aug. 7. (Two courageous senators, Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska, provided the only "no" votes.) The resolution authorized the president "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression." End of excerpt. Cheney is recreating the Gulf of Tonkin in the Persian Gulf, and the NYT is, at best, parroting the administration's excuses and calling it news. >In addition to a grammar girl and a punctuation provost we need a >relevance monkey. > Forget the monkey. We need a relevance zebra. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html