Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Friday, February 02, 2007
Kool Aid Kool Aid, Tastes Great ....
They're at it again.

In an op-ed piece today, Mark Weisbrot and Robert Naiman explain how the NY Times hasn't learned a single thing since their numerous mea culpa's over their role in enabling the Bush administration in getting into Iraq:
Today the New York Times, on page A10, informs us that "
Iran May Have Trained Attackers That Killed 5 American Soldiers, U.S. and Iraqis Say"

Note that:

- the claim that Iran "may have" trained attackers gets the headline and the lede. Of course, green Martians "may have" trained the attackers. The key question is: is there real evidence?

- there is not a single named source in the article.

- there is no rebuttal, no point of view different from the allegation, even though plenty of knowledgeable analysts (Juan Cole, Gareth Porter, Trita Parsi, for starters) could have easily been found to give a contrary view. A recent Los Angeles Times piece found "scant evidence" for the claim that Iran was behind attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

- no "direct evidence" exists, as the article acknowledges (further down.)

- the only "evidence" given is that the attack was sophisticated (what are they saying - Iraqis are too dumb to do this by themselves ?!) and that Iran has a motive for retaliating against the U.S. Which is no evidence at all - lots of folks have a motive for retaliating against the U.S.
This is the national paper of record? For reference, I wrote about this incident yesterday including Juan Cole's debunking of the administrations claims, which the NY Times did not include.

The laziness and ineptitude of the reporting in the national media is killing us. Anyone who gets their news solely from these outlets is seriously ill-informed. At worst the reporting is corporately controlled manipulation, and at best it's simply shoddy, lazy and incompetent.
Written at 9:43 AM by Greyhair.
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