How pathetic is the NY Times?
Bob Somerby counts the ways:
DAVID SANGER, WILLING IDIOT: How dumb is this White House willing to be? And just how far will journalists go to accomodate the Bush camp's stupid stories? On Tuesday, we presented an example from David Sanger's laughable piece in the New York Times (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 3/30/04). The White House wanted you to think that Clarke's book was packed with mistakes. So a White House aide listed problems with Clarke's first chapter -- and Sanger obediently typed them on up. The first example that Sanger provided? At one point, Clarke quotes the aide, Franklin Miller, saying this: "What can I do?" But Miller said that didn't sound right -- more likely, he would have said: "How can I help?" And yes, this actually went in the Times, the first item in a long story which ran with a photo of Clarke. (Sanger included six examples in all.)
You're right: We approach mental illness when a scribe puts such lunacy in the Times. But to show you how fake this whole mess can be, let's look at the troubling item with which Sanger closed his report:
SANGER: While the book describes the Situation Room [on September 11] as sparsely populated, Mr. Miller and Mr. McCormack ticked off the names of at least a dozen people who came in to work the phones and help figure out the location of suspect aircraft.
You'll note that Clarke isn't quoted here; Sanger helpfully paraphrases (he "describes the Situation Room as sparsely populated"). Of course, most of Sanger's readers didn't have Clarke[base ']s book. But we do. Here's what Clarke writes:
CLARKE (page 10): The White House compound was empty now except for the group with Cheney in the Easy Wing bomb shelter and the team with me in the West Wing Situation Room: Roger [Cressey], Lisa [Gordon-Hagerty] and Paul [Kurtz] from my counterterrorist staff, Frank Miller and Marine Colonel Tom Greenwood and a half dozen Situation Room staff.
So let's count the people in the room:
1. Richard Clarke
2. Roger Cressey
3. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty
4. Paul Kurtz
5. Frank Miller
6. Tom Greenwood
7. A half dozen staffers
Those familiar with life on the planet will note that this adds up to a dozen! Tell us again why American citizens should tolerate people like Sanger.
There's one thing, however, I think Bob gets wrong. We're not approaching mental illness with such junk in our "top" newspapers.
We're seriously fucked in the head.
12:13:00 PM 
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