[lit-ideas] Re: Bullying Iran - New York Times

  • From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2007 18:02:46 -0500 (GMT-05:00)

-----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.




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