Letters to the Editor
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Zzz
Glenn: This was way too long and slightly hysterical in tone. Lay off the adverbs for awhile. "False" works better than "totally false," and so on.
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Don`t forget Rathergate, CNN-Operation Tailwind and the CIA/Contra/crack stories
Glenn, a useful contrast to the cases where the press should apologize but does not when it acts as a mouthpiece for liars in the administration and military are the cases where it actually does real reporting, but backs down under pressure from the establishment and cans the reporters involved.
The administration and military have both carrots and sticks available to entrap the media and don`t hesitate to use them, at the expense of truth and public understanding of what the government wants to keep in the dark. And the media has proven spineless and easily coopted.
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Glenn's E-mail
GGreenwald@gclaw.us
For those who were wondering, it can be found at the old Unclaimed Territory. Just scroll down, look carefully. It's easy to miss.
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/
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Ian Fleming _was_ James Bond...
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action, Mr Bond. - Auric Goldfinger
http://www.klast.net/bond/flem_bio.html
In a 1940 trip into a crumbling France, Fleming supervised the escape from Dieppe, juggling the security needs of his country against the crush of refugees seeking escape from the Nazi machine. With Fleming flair, he spent one of his last evening eating and drinking some of the best food in the country, and one of his last days coordinating the evacuation of King Zog of Albania.
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Bentonite and Silica
Bentonite and Silica are both EXTREMELY common, with all manner of applications. From industrial to food production.
Silica is so common it is found in sand.
It would take little effort for anyone person to obtain either of these compounds in most developed countries of the world.
Thus, the use of them as indicative of any single country's possible guilt in manufacturing anthrax is ridiculous.
It is so completly misleading, it borders on deliberate.
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Drudge doesn't rule Schneider's world.
TVNewser does.
http://nytimes.com/2006/11/20/business/media/20newser.html
THE NEW YORK TIMES ** Monday, November 20, 2006
The Kid With All the News About the TV News
By JULIE BOSMAN
TOWSON, Md. — When people in the television news business want to find out what’s going on in their industry, they turn to a blog called TVNewser. But while the executives obsessively checking TVNewser are mostly high powered and highly paid, the person who creates it is not: he is Brian Stelter, a baby-faced 21-year-old at Towson University here, a few miles north of Baltimore. . .. . . Mr. Stelter’s blog ( tvnewser.com ), a seven-day-a-week, almost 24-hour-a-day newsfeed of gossip, anonymous tips, newspaper article links and program ratings, has become a virtual bulletin board for the industry.
It is read religiously by network presidents, media executives, producers and publicists, not for any stinging commentary from Mr. Stelter, whose style is usually described as earnest, but because it provides a quick snapshot of the industry on any given day. Habitués include Mr. Williams and Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN’s domestic operations, who long ago offered up his cellphone number to Mr. Stelter.
“The whole industry pays attention to his blog,” said Jeffrey W. Schneider, a senior vice president of ABC News. “It would not surprise me if I refreshed my browser 30 to 40 times a day.”
[ Some bloggers reacted to this statement with snark about how you'd think somebody in the news biz would know how to get an RSS feed. ]
In April Mr. Stelter attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as a guest of MSNBC.
“He was quite a celebrity,” said Jeremy Gaines, a spokesman for MSNBC. “Literally two tables over was George Clooney, and at our table was TVNewser, and people were waiting in line to see him.” . . .
. . . “The biggest TV executives, the men and women who run the top networks, look at this kid’s Web site all the time,” said Joe Scarborough, the host of the talk show “Scarborough Country” on MSNBC. “And the genius of it is that everybody thinks they own him. Everybody says: ‘Oh, I’ve got a great relationship with Brian. Let me leak it to him.’ ” . . .
. . . In the industry Mr. Stelter is generally thought of as a reliable reporter, despite his youth and inexperience. “He seems to be a trustworthy guy, a trustworthy source of information,” said Jeff Greenfield, a CNN commentator. “And the fact that he can barely vote and drink shouldn’t really bother anybody.” . . .
- - The New York Times
Here's some reaction by Steve Gilliard and others : http://cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/bloggers_doubt_tvnewsers_abili.php
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@ vontrapp
Might it not be possible that using bentonite to weaponize anthrax spores is a little more complicated than using it to make kitty litter?
I'm not trying to be a smart-ass here, honest, but I do seem to remember that in the original thread, a biochemist mentioned that encapsulating the spores in an anti-clumping compound was necessary, and was a bit trickier than just shaking them together in a (very well-sealed) bag.
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"diverse sources believed to be true"
How diverse are the "diverse sources" and why do we care what they believe, or what they *tell* us they believe?
So the story here is that some unidentified people said something that they said was true. Wow, color me impressed.
How about some actual investigation and confirmation? If the sources tell you the Anthrax has certain properties why don't you examine the Anthrax yourself? Or get a copy of the official examination results? Or talk to the person that did the examination?
This sort of story is just gossip. Are these people really that credulous? Does it not occur to them that their sources may be wrong or *lying*? Especially when they have every incentive to lie?
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Cowards
I can name a dozen people offhand that I know personally who were convinced by that Iraq-anthrax link. I realized when Glenn first posted on this subject that I still believed it myself. That was what tipped the balance for Andrew Sullivan, too--see the quote in his Wikipedia article.
This smells to me like they thought they had a big scoop, and when it turned out to be bullshit, didn't have enough courage to come out openly and say it. Horrifying.