Letters to the Editor
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Glenn, you are missed
If any fellow Glenn fans are listlessly looking for something to read, I've got a new rant.
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@Steven Rockford Re: Glenn's readers
This 1000 word diatribe states (and restates) facts that all of your readers already know.
All of Glenn's readers today do not include the several hundred million (because people can read Salon.com from many countries across the globe) that may not have heard of Glenn yet and will be discovering him for the first time today, tomorrow or next week. I'd address the other points in your comment if I had bothered to read further. I didn't bother.
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my favorite quote
WILLIAMS: With us tonight to look back at the military operation and perhaps what today means as a media event and a significant event in the lives of the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen is retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey who, of course, commanded the 24th Mechanized during the first Gulf War. He is an NBC News analyst on military affairs.
General, let's start with today. The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a -- on a carrier landing. This must be very meaningful to the United States military.
General BARRY McCAFFREY (US Army): Oh, yeah, I think it's a huge shot in the arm to the morale of--of the entire armed forces, never mind to remind Americans why we pay for these 10-carrier battle groups
We pay for 10-carrier battle groups because they make right-wing TV commentators rich, while creating great propaganda shots at the same time.
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Oh, oh. The nutroots are being ignored re: Fox news. Heh.
The nation’s top Democrats are suddenly rushing to appear on the Fox News Channel, which they once had shunned as enemy territory as the nemesis of liberal bloggers.
The detente with Fox has provoked a backlash from progressive bloggers, who contend the party’s leaders are turning their backs on the base — and lending credibility and legitimacy to the network liberals love to hate — in a quest for a few swing votes.
In a span of eight days, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY.) and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean are all taking their seats with the network that calls itself “fair and balanced” but is widely viewed as skewing conservative.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10032.html
Perhaps this is why we haven't heard from "fearless leader" for a while. The shock of being thrown overboard is too much to handle.
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Shock?
The shock of being thrown overboard is too much to handle.
-- shooter242
Would 'dumb as a bag of hammers' be too small of an explanation to describe the idiocy enveloped in that statement posted from someone who has for some time now read Glenn Greenwald's writing?
Glenn Greenwald's theme to so many of his blog posts is about the horrendous complicity of the media with government, and the horrendous cowardice and or stupidity of many members of the Democratic party for playing to that complicity and stupidity. So how could it be that one would think that Glenn Greenwald would be "shocked" by what the bag of hammers poster, Shooter242, has posted about?
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I love how you own all these alleged journalist...
by doing the radical act of gathering data and facts and then reporting them.
Like I said before your the best reporter out there.
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Shooter, you incredibly ignorant git
Allow me to be the first to point out the obvious to you. The obvious you are intent upon overlooking, blocking out, remaining blissfully unaware of. Ignorant.
It is you who is being thrown overboard, under the bus, defenestrated, cut loose, trampled under foot etc., etc. and so on so forth...
And God bless the "nutroots". I expect them to serve the same function as the wingnut base before them for many more years to come. You and your wingnut base can go back to circulating internet e-mails and bulk mailings until Fox News folds.
Canseco loses mansion
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080502/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_canseco_foreclosure
Ignorance is bliss or angst.
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NPR comes clean (sort of)
A relatively good piece on NPR yesterday, caught during PM drive-time. NPR describing the NYT piece, and then looking at their own record with analysts, stating they are reviewing their own policy due to the revelations. GG is not cited, but the timing is such that someone at NPR must be reading here.
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More on NPR
From Ombudsman at NPR:
http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2008/04/npr_new_york_times_and_sourcin_1.html
« Previous Post Main Blog Page
NPR, NEW YORK TIMES AND SOURCING MILITARY EXPERTS
The New York Times revealed last week that the Pentagon has long covertly pressured and pampered more than a dozen retired military officers hired by broadcast networks as analysts to ensure positive spin on the Iraq war.
Among those cited was a military consultant for NPR.
After a two-year investigation, Times' reporter David Barstow described how the Pentagon cultivated military analysts for TV and radio by providing special access hoping in exchange for positive spin on the war, particularly after it started going badly. In some cases, analysts used that access to promote their post-military careers with defense contractors.
Deep into the 7,600-word piece on April 20 Barstow mentioned an NPR military analyst, Army Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales Jr. (Ret.) in an email he sent to the Pentagon that could be construed as Scales trying to gain favor in order to be sent to Iraq for high-level briefings. Scales denies this.
"Any thought that I'm a mouthpiece for this administration is ridiculous," said Scales in an interview. "I only ask that you review my positions on the toll that the war is taking on our soldiers and my frustrations with the inability of the administration to translate military advantage into political success and you will get my point. My main purpose for involving myself with the media is to explain warfare and the military to a society that is detached from us to a great degree."
In February 2003, NPR hired Scales, and Army Lt. Gen. Thomas G. Rhame (Ret.), to be on call as independent analysts partly because both were commanding generals in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and they could speak articulately about the Army.
Scales also was attractive to NPR because he was a Vietnam vet, former head of the Army War College and wrote the Army's official account of the Gulf War. NPR installed a high-quality audio phone line in Scales' home, and paid him $100 an hour, according to his contract. When war broke out in March 2003, Scales appeared on different NPR news shows -- a total of 36 times in 2003, including 11 times during NPR special news reports in first days of the war.
Scales also appeared on Fox News as a paid consultant. Between 2003 and 2004, he appeared on Fox 32 times with the title "military analyst," which negated any exclusivity for NPR.
Even after his NPR contract ended in March 2004, Scales continued to appear on air in an unpaid capacity. Since February 2003, he has been on NPR 67 times, most often (28 appearances) on All Things Considered (ATC). The latest was March 28, when he gave ATC listeners an assessment of the fifth anniversary of the war.
While Scales has a stellar military background, he is also president of Colgen, Inc., a defense consulting company. But rarely was he identified on air as a defense consultant. Only once in December 2006 was Scales' relationship to Colgen mentioned.
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Robert H. Scales, Jr., a retired Army General and analyst for Fox News and National Public Radio whose consulting company advises several military firms on weapons and tactics used in Iraq, wanted the Pentagon to approve high-level briefings for him inside Iraq in 2006.
"Recall the stuff I did after my last visit," he wrote. "I will do the same this time."
This was a reference to a trip Scales made to Iraq in October 2005, sponsored by the office of the secretary of defense.
"What I meant to say was that I went in 2005 and I came back and reported on what I saw and I will be perfectly open to do the same thing again," Scales told me.
But the Pentagon did not approve his request for a second visit in 2006. Scales says he returned to Iraq for eight days last November at the invitation of General David H. Petraeus, the current U.S. commander.
"When I think things are going well, I'll say that," said Scales. "When they are going badly, I'll say that. If NPR's audience is concerned about me being under the influence of contractors or the administration, they are wrong. Frankly, I was lumped together with a whole bunch of people who were cited in this article and the inference was somehow I was a shill for the administration. I'm not."
The Times story about the military analysts did not give Scales' an opportunity to explain his role, except for a quote that "none of us drink the Kool-aid." In other words, Scales said he and other generals did not automatically accept the Pentagon's arguments.
"The idea that I can't think for myself is what I find so disturbing about The Times' piece," said Scales.
After reading The Times story, however, about 40 NPR listeners either called or emailed to say they found it difficult to see Scales as anything but a lapdog for the Pentagon. Some said Scales should never appear on air again. Another suggested that all Scales interviews should be deleted from NPR's archives.
"As Ombudsman, you should demand that Scales be fired," wrote Vincent Valdmanis.
Since Scales is no longer on contract with NPR, he can't be fired. Rather than toss Scales off the air and lose his practical and scholarly knowledge of the Army, in the future NPR should always be transparent and identify him as a defense consultant with Colgen.
NPR's audience can evaluate what Scales says through that lens. NPR should also append a note to each archived Scales' appearances that indicates he is also a defense consultant with Colgen. What also is needed, and I believe NPR will now begin doing, is a more careful vetting of all experts before they go on air.
As soon as NPR editors read The Times' piece, emails began flying trying to assess the damage and determine how to proceed. NPR waited until Wednesday on Talk of the Nation to first discuss this issue publicly. The Bryant Park Project followed up the next day with two pieces on how the media was ignoring The Times' story.
Within two days after The Times story appeared, NPR had developed detailed guidelines for vetting on-air guests and looking for potential conflicts of interests that even guests may not consider.
"Generally, I think The New York Times piece was a good wake-up call for all of us," said Christopher Turpin, executive producer of All Things Considered. "After consultations, Ellen Weiss, vice president for News has already implemented good common sense changes in our procedures that balance aggressive vetting with the practicalities of booking guests on exceedingly tight deadlines. I'll certainly make clear that my staff get the message loud and clear."
The Pentagon too has re-thought its practice. On Friday, Pentagon officials suspended the special briefings for retired military media analysts.
As far as I'm concerned, NPR still doesn't get it. Once again, they are conflating true policy criticism with tactical or strategic criticism. Two completely different things. And they are glossing over the clear collaboration between Scales and various Pentagon sources, and Scales and Petraeus.
Still, at least NPR is responding to the article, telling their audience about it, and reviewing their policies. In other words, they are not simply ignoring it.