[Marxism] Re: Michael Massing explains how the US media lied ...

[<lshan@xxxxxxx>]

The villain of Massing's piece is the infamous Judith Miller who Louis has
pretty well carved up on this list. I thought that this comment most aptly
describes her (and her ilk's) conception of her job:

Asked about this, Miller said that as an investigative reporter in the
intelligence area, "my job isn't to assess the government's information and
be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of
The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq's arsenal." Many
journalists would disagree with this; instead, they would consider offering
an independent evaluation of official claims one of their chief
responsibilities. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16922
___________

"my job is to tell readers ... what the government thought" In other words,
she's a mouthpiece, not a reporter. She should put that after her byline,
which instead of "Judith Miller from Washington" should read "Judith Miller,
Government shill."

And reporters instead of writing "what the government thought" should always
qualify themselves by writing "what the government says." This applies to
everyone. Instead of "John Kerry thinks" it should be "John Kerry said." The
whole language of reportage is deceptive. They should use words like
"claimed, asserted, argued, said, maintained." Who knows what politicians
believe?

By the way, when I checked the NY Times for Judith Miller for the last 30
days, there is only one article. Her name is tagged onto the end of an story
about reopening the Senate office building. Apparently the Times's top
"investigative reporter" on WMD has nothing to contribute to the ongoing
discussion about how "we were all wrong" to quote David Kay.

from Brian Shannon


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