It seems the NY Times has as of late had a news room full of story fabricators, first Blair, and now Judith Miller. They’re so ashamed they can’t even mention her name in the apology that they posted.
NY Times Psuedo Apology - Published Wednesday, May 26, 2004
But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge.
The problematic articles varied in authorship and subject matter, but many shared a common feature. They depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on “regime change” in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks. (The most prominent of the anti-Saddam campaigners, Ahmad Chalabi, has been named as an occasional source in Times articles since at least 1991, and has introduced reporters to other exiles. He became a favorite of hard-liners within the Bush administration and a paid broker of information from Iraqi exiles, until his payments were cut off last week.) Complicating matters for journalists, the accounts of these exiles were often eagerly confirmed by United States officials convinced of the need to intervene in Iraq. Administration officials now acknowledge that they sometimes fell for misinformation from these exile sources. So did many news organizations — in particular, this one.
Unfortunately they didn’t name names, and it wasn’t Blair this time, it was a reporter named Judith Miller.
From this source…
It seems as if the stories were fed to Judith Miller and then once printed, used as cites by the administration top guns, you know, guys like Cheney.
By Miller’s own account, she verified her Chalabi scoops by checking with senior administration officials. And the OSP, in turn, backed up their Chalabi fiction by citing reliable media sources like the “unimpeachable” New York Times. So, the only way that Chalabi could get away with his scheme was if the OSP and Miller were unaware that they were getting their information from the same source. How likely is that?
Miller often cited unidentified “senior officials” in her articles. The ombudsman at the Times is now suggesting that she should identify the rascals who misled her. But their identities are an open secret in the Beltway. Once again, the evidence points to Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis Libby and Douglas Feith. All three of these confirmed Likudniks, along with Vice President Cheney and his wife, are associated with the AEI neo-con cabal. The AEI sponsored Chalabi from when he was just a wee little overpaid public relations gimmick. The public record is clear on the AEI’s frantic efforts to promote this war. In fact, the entire neo-con movement was mobilized to launch volley after volley of Weapons of Mass Deception against a defenseless American Public.
Your second link was mistakenly just your first link over again. Here is the link I think you meant to make. (Thanks, google!!)
Anyways, it is a fascinating story. More evidence of our “liberal media” leading us astray.
