I last wrote about journalist Judith Miller on June 22nd. See here.
Russ Baker has written an interesting article for the Nation...see: " 'Scoops' and Truth at the Times"
"Probably the most instructive exercise in assessing {Judith} Miller's reporting is to compare her with the Post's Barton Gellman. You would think the two were in different countries, if not on different planets......."
Baker goes on to compare/contrast Miller's NY Times headlines to Gellman's Washington Post headlines.
A striking contrast.
Quote from Nation article:
"Here are typical Miller headlines from May:
May 21: "U.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs to Germ Arms"
May 12: "Radioactive Material Found at a Test Site Near Baghdad"
May 11: "Trailer Is a Mobile Lab Capable of Turning Out Bioweapons, a Team Says"
May 9: "G.I.'s Search, Not Alone, In the Cellar of Secrets"
May 8: "U.S. Aides Say Iraqi Truck Could Be a Germ-War Lab"
Now Gellman:
May 18: "Odyssey of Frustration; In Search for Weapons, Army Team Finds Vacuum Cleaners"
May 11: "Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq; Task Force Unable to Find Any Weapons"
May 10: "Seven Nuclear Sites Looted; Iraqi Scientific Files, Some Containers Missing"
May 4: "Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted; U.S. Team Unable to Determine Whether Deadly Materials Are Missing"
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Since we're talking about professional people (journalists and leaders alike) misleading the American public, in a somewhat-related story from the Boston Globe entitled "Bush overstated Iraq links to al-Qaida, former intelligence officials say",
Matt Kelley quotes Gregory Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council under President Clinton:
''You see the polls lots of Americans believe that there was a link between Iraq and al-Qaida despite the lack of intelligence evidence on that score.''
Look at the headlines we're seeing from columnists like Miller in our most influential newspapers.
Observe stories now coming out about all the lies, exaggerations, and erroneous dribble-doublespeak the Bush administration has fed to us.
Is it any wonder the American public winds up looking like complete suckers...or at best, like "people from a different planet"?
Donald Rumsfeld looked like an ornery old fool on the Sunday news-talk shows this morning trying to talk his way around and
out of all the things he has said in the past.
Condi Rice was dizzy on the liar's carousel on the Sunday FOX morning show, too. (Did you see Tony Snow acting as a Bush-apologist in his interview with Rice? He was absolutely leading Condi with candied questions...you would have thought he was her DEFENSE ATTORNEY, for God's sake!)
They're spinning away about their pre-war lies. (How about their post-war lies? See here.)
It's truly amazing watching these people...journalists and leaders alike...on the liar's carousel.
Round and round and round they go...where they'll stop....nobody knows.
Nobody knows.
Nobody knows.
(The polls..the polls will tell you so).
When is Congress going to listen to us and get some action going on investigating all these lies?
Republican Congresspeople--what on earth is wrong with you?
If Congress fails to take action, the lies will continue to snowball, our President will assume he can get away with more,
and America will remain on a liar's carousel to facist hell.
Companion piece from the Independent/UK: "20 Lies About The War"