The Times- Still Bending Over for Bush
I opened my New York Times this morning to see the following article on the front page:
"Lawyers Agreed on the Legality of Brutal Tactic
Justice Department Consensus Included Opponents of Waterboarding"
I have not even read this article yet, but I am going to stick my neck out here and predict that, within days, it is going to be demonstrated to be a self-serving pack of lies, reprinted as usual by the Times without any concern for its truth or falsity.
I must add that I'm not sticking my neck out very far, since this type of article in the Times always turns out that way.
Update: It is now about five hours later. This, from Glenn Greenwald:
"The New York Times was provided 3 extremely important internal Justice Department emails from April, 2005 (.pdf) -- all written by then-Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey -- which highlight how the Bush administration's torture techniques became legally authorized by Bush lawyers. As Marcy Wheeler documents, the leak to the NYT was clearly from someone eager to defend Bush officials by suggesting that Comey's emails prove that all DOJ lawyers --- even those opposed to torture on policy grounds -- agreed these techniques were legal, and the NYT reporters, Scott Shane and David Johnston, dutifully do the leakers' bidding by misleadingly depicting the Comey emails as vindication for Bush/Cheney....
I defy anyone to read Comey's 3 emails and walk away with that conclusion."
And later, in a reply to a remark by lickspittle commentator George Stephanopolis:
"Any rational and minimally well-informed person who actually read the Comey emails would walk away with the exact opposite point -- what is "stunning" was how extreme was the pressure from the White House to issue these memos and how compliant DOJ lawyers were to White House dictates. But that's how our media works: anonymous government officials tell them what to say; they write it down uncritically; and it then becomes conventional wisdom regardless of how false it is."
Only one disagreement with you, Glenn. The people originating these lies are no longer "anonymous government officials." They are anonymous Republican hacks. It is not the government that the mainstream press bends over for, it is the Republican party.
Go read the whole article. It's kind of long, but like all of Glenn Greenwald's columns, it is carefully researched and totally convincing.
Update 2: Similar comments from Talking Points Memo, if you need further convincing.
Update 3: More from Daily Kos, focusing on the utter irresponsibility of the New York Times' pathetic journalistic standards. Kos quotes this ironic line from a recent NYT apology:
"...demonstrated again the dangers when editors run with exclusive leaked material in politically charged circumstances and fail to push back skeptically."
I wish I could claim more credit for having correctly predicted that this story would prove to be an easily refuted pack of lies, but after the last eight years, who could have thought anything else? The sad thing is that this piece of garbage is going to be like a millstone around our necks, quoted for years by right wing apologists, just like Judy Miller's malicious disinformation campaign of a few years ago.
Update 4: And Digby.
"Lawyers Agreed on the Legality of Brutal Tactic
Justice Department Consensus Included Opponents of Waterboarding"
I have not even read this article yet, but I am going to stick my neck out here and predict that, within days, it is going to be demonstrated to be a self-serving pack of lies, reprinted as usual by the Times without any concern for its truth or falsity.
I must add that I'm not sticking my neck out very far, since this type of article in the Times always turns out that way.
Update: It is now about five hours later. This, from Glenn Greenwald:
"The New York Times was provided 3 extremely important internal Justice Department emails from April, 2005 (.pdf) -- all written by then-Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey -- which highlight how the Bush administration's torture techniques became legally authorized by Bush lawyers. As Marcy Wheeler documents, the leak to the NYT was clearly from someone eager to defend Bush officials by suggesting that Comey's emails prove that all DOJ lawyers --- even those opposed to torture on policy grounds -- agreed these techniques were legal, and the NYT reporters, Scott Shane and David Johnston, dutifully do the leakers' bidding by misleadingly depicting the Comey emails as vindication for Bush/Cheney....
I defy anyone to read Comey's 3 emails and walk away with that conclusion."
And later, in a reply to a remark by lickspittle commentator George Stephanopolis:
"Any rational and minimally well-informed person who actually read the Comey emails would walk away with the exact opposite point -- what is "stunning" was how extreme was the pressure from the White House to issue these memos and how compliant DOJ lawyers were to White House dictates. But that's how our media works: anonymous government officials tell them what to say; they write it down uncritically; and it then becomes conventional wisdom regardless of how false it is."
Only one disagreement with you, Glenn. The people originating these lies are no longer "anonymous government officials." They are anonymous Republican hacks. It is not the government that the mainstream press bends over for, it is the Republican party.
Go read the whole article. It's kind of long, but like all of Glenn Greenwald's columns, it is carefully researched and totally convincing.
Update 2: Similar comments from Talking Points Memo, if you need further convincing.
Update 3: More from Daily Kos, focusing on the utter irresponsibility of the New York Times' pathetic journalistic standards. Kos quotes this ironic line from a recent NYT apology:
"...demonstrated again the dangers when editors run with exclusive leaked material in politically charged circumstances and fail to push back skeptically."
I wish I could claim more credit for having correctly predicted that this story would prove to be an easily refuted pack of lies, but after the last eight years, who could have thought anything else? The sad thing is that this piece of garbage is going to be like a millstone around our necks, quoted for years by right wing apologists, just like Judy Miller's malicious disinformation campaign of a few years ago.
Update 4: And Digby.
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