Category: media

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It’s (Un)Just War

A few headlines to sleep on:

The highest ranking U.S. military officer to be charged with prisoner abuse in Iraq was convicted of killing an Iraqi general by stuffing his head into a sleeping bag but will face no jail time.

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer could have faced a life sentence if found guilty on a more serious charge of murder, but instead will take a slap on the wrist and a 60 day vacation.

“The military is a family when you get right down to it,” Welshofer told Denver television’s 9News following the sentencing. “I can’t thank them enough for their support.”

What a warm fuzzy feeling, no?

Two German engineers kidnapped in Iraq (Reuters) — makes me wonder exactly how smart these Iraqi kidnappers are… Germany under Angela Merkel is not only likely to offer a large sum of money to free these hostages, but it will undoubtedly add to the contention between the U.S. and the EU.

Pakistani PM Shaukat Aziz is in Washington to further humiliate Bush and Rumsfeld for the recent surprise bombing that killed several women and children.

Tuesday’s headlines that you swear you’ve seen before…

NYTimes: Iraq Rebuilding Badly Hobbled, U.S. Report Finds
Wash. Post: White House Got Early Warning on Katrina
and: Bush Defends Domestic Spying

… and will undoubtedly see again — perhaps the media is protecting us against our super-short-term memories.

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Coverage of the NSA Scandal

A must read from retired first amendment litigator (and recipient of the 2005 best new blog award) Glenn Greenwald:

The media need not take sides in the NSA debate or in any other. But it is failing in its primary purpose if it continues to allow the Administration to blithely make false statements without informing their readers that the statements are false. Allowing the Government to make false statements is not neutrality; it is an abdication of the principal journalistic responsibility.

Read the whole thing here.

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Jill Carroll Update

Jill CarrollMy finger’s are crossed for kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll. Reuters reports Sunday morning:

Iraq?s Justice Ministry said on Sunday it still expects U.S. forces to release six Iraqi women prisoners this week, despite U.S. comments to the contrary.

U.S. NGO Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is negotiating for Carroll?s release according to Sunday’s Washington Post.

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Iraqi Bloggers Continue Posting at TimesSelect

The four young writers that the New York Times scooped off of the blogosphere, three from Baghdad and one from Mosul, are still providing well-written posts about everything from health care to education to bombs to Eid celebrations at http://iraq.page.nytimes.com/.

This is yet another bonus for TimesSelect subscribers ($50/yr, but free if you subscribe to even just the Sunday Times).

In a week that saw a despicable display of editorializing by Washington Post ombudsperson Deborah Howell, topped with the mass deletion of reader feedback at post.blog, it has been revealed that the New York Times has ordered its editors to remove e-mail addresses from their print and online op-eds, thereby enabling only TimesSelect subscribers to e-mail as well as to access the truthiness of the likes of Frank Rich, et al. Worseover, American Thinker busted The Times last week for mis-captioning this photo, alleged to be from the site of the recent U.S. airstrikes in Pakistan.

Howell, wholly disregarding and abusing her ombudsly responsibilities failed to clear up false claims in her Abramoff report last week and the melee that followed, allowing that she did print wrong information, but encouraging readers to “stay tuned…”

Lame. Sunday talk shows of note include Sen. Kerry on Stephanopolous, Obama on Russert, and Sens. Lieberman and Roberts on Face the Nation. The coming week, on the other hand, is setting up to be quite newsworthy, what with French PM Chirac dropping his own nuclear bombshell, and news of Israel planning to attack Iran should diplomatic efforts to halt their nuclear projects fail.

AND NOW, AFP reports from Tehran:

Iranian officials have held talks with radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, a prominent opponent of US forces, with Tehran using the visit to repeat its call for foreign troops to quit Iraq.