From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Sat Jan 15 2005 - 19:25:33 GMT
Hi Ant, Ian, and all,
I better jump in here before Platt's selective look at the US media
descends into utter fantasy.
On 15 Jan 2005 at 11:32, Platt Holden wrote:
Jason Blair was a highly regarded black reporter for the NY Times who
submitted fictional reports about the D.C. sniper story which for
weeks were printed on the front page..
msh says:
Interesting, is it not, that Platt feels it's necessary to tell us
that Jason Blair is black? In a pathetic attempt to advance his
career, Blair did indeed fictionalize, and plagiarize, some of his
reports. He was forced to resign, and two of his editors were
subsequently fired. NO ONE was hurt as a result of his fraudulent
reporting.
Compare this with the reporting of Judith Miller, who's stenographic
relationship with the White House propaganda machine contributed
greatly to the completely fraudulent WMD hysteria that suckered the
American population into supporting a war which, so far, has resulted
in the deaths of well over 1000 American service people, with many
more thousands injured, and conservative estimates of 50,000 - 60,000
innocent Iraqis murdered.
In fact, the NYT published numerous allegations about WMD in Iraq
that turned out to be false-- such as one source's claim that "all of
Iraq is one large storage facility" for nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons. Such stories appeared daily on the paper's front
page, and did a great deal to sell the White House's bogus case for
war against Iraq. While the Times has admitted that some of its WMD
reporting was "insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand
unchallenged," the reporter most responsible for those stories,
Judith Miller, was never sanctioned by the Times-- and indeed still
continues to report on Iraq for the paper (as far as I know).
Ironically, after MSNBC's Hardball finished its discussion of CBS and
journalistic responsibility on January 10, the show turned to a
discussion of Iraq featuring... Judith Miller.
I guess the idea is that journalists may be punished for bad
reporting, if they have offended the wrong people. If they have
merely helped guide the country into war under false pretenses, their
careers can continue happily unabated. That's that liberal media
for ya.
platt:
> >and the patently false story of Bush's national
> >guard service perpetrated by "CBS News" in a blatant attempt to
> >prevent the election of George Bush.
>
ant:
> And what exactly was inaccurate about this story?
platt:
CBS news claimed a forged document was authentic in an effort to show
that Bush lied about his national guard service. Bloggers immediately
spotted the forgery which to this day is denied by Dan Rather, the
anchor for CBS news.
msh says:
Multi-multi-millionaire Dan Rather is about as liberal as Ross Perot.
He was the guy who did the talk show circuit saying things like,
"When my president says we're going to war, just show me where to
line up." He was a one-man cheering section for the run-up to the
attack on Iraq, a classic example of the "liberal" bias of commercial
media.
It's true that CBS released a report on its use of a few disputed
documents about Bush's stint in the National Guard, announcing that
they had fired or asked for the resignations of four staffers. The
report did not in any way exonerate Bush; nor does it contradict the
documented evidence that Bush skipped a required physical; was
grounded from flying; and received a questionable honorable discharge
that he may not have earned. Moreover, none of this contradicts the
indisputable fact that his powerful family's influence allowed Bush
to avoid service in Vietnam, while American boys were being killed
there at the rate of 2000 a month. Of course, the ultimate irony is
that a pivotal strategem of the 2004 Bush campaign was to question
the war record of John Kerry, who was indeed a decorated Vietnam
veteran.
Now note the double standard regarding media mistakes. CBS has been
roundly criticized, and employees have lost their jobs, over a report
that used documents that may not have been authentic, though the
general idea behind the report was essentially correct. Last year,
The New York Times ran at least five articles and columns that used a
"quote" from Senator John Kerry that was definitely not real. It was
made-up by columnist Maureen Dowd to mock and deride Kerry, and was
passed around the editorial office like a piece of Christmas candy.
Nobody lost their job or was even reprimanded. There are numerous
other examples of this double-standard, and I'll be happy to provide
details to anyone who's interested.
Anyway, it's ridiculous to claim that these controversies somehow
prove that the commercial media have a liberal or anti-Bush bias.
When a few staffers get caught taking shortcuts on a story critical
of Bush (shortcuts that in no way undermined the general thrust of
the story), it cost them their careers. Other reporters have
received much less scrutiny, and punishment amounting to little or
none, for offenses of far greater importance, and with much more
serious consequences to the country as a whole (see Judith Miller
above).
Best to all,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
--
InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors
Custom Software Solutions for Windows, PDAs, and the Web Since 1983
Web Site: http://www.infoproconsulting.com
"The shadows that a swinging lamp will throw,
We come from nowhere and to nothing go."
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Jan 15 2005 - 19:32:30 GMT