Thursday, November 10, 2005

Judy goes Dexy stays

Good evening. How's everyone doing?

Did the sun shine a little brighter today? Did we have world peace? Did all the mainstream press do their job?

Let's note this from Democracy Now!

Judith Miller Leaves The New York Times
The New York Times has announced the retirement of reporter Judith Miller. Miller spent 85 days in jail this year for refusing to testify before the grand jury in the CIA leak case. She was released after receiving a waiver from her source, indicted White House aide Lewis Libby. Initially praised as a champion of press freedom, Miller drew criticism when her editors accused her of misleading them on her contacts with the White House. Miller’s work has also come under question for her reporting in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Miller wrote a series of articles alleging Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, allegations that turned out to be false. In a letter to the editor printed in today’s New York Times, Miller wrote: "I have chosen to resign because over the last few months, I have become the news, something a New York Times reporter never wants to be." A Times spokesperson said "it had been made clear to Ms. Miller that she would not be able to continue as a reporter of any kind" at the newspaper.

Huh.

Judy Miller's gone.

But nothing's really changed, has it? Dexter Filkins still clowns.

Could it be that the problem goes beyond Judy?

Gasp!

That's it!

But Tony tells me you wouldn't know it to travel around online. Tony said it's as though there was one and only one clown and today she got fired from the circus.

Yep, it's all Judy Miller to hear the web gloat. So that must mean that today's New York Times was just an outstanding paper, right?

Wrong.

In the reality based world, you could check out C.I.'s "NYT: Judy's gone but don't celebrate -- Dexy (among others) remains (editorial):"

Round, round, round, he gets around. And this morning's he's out of the Green Zone. Who let the propagandist out? Who? Who? Who? Who let the propagandist out?
Yes, Dexter Filkins. A man present at the November 2004 slaughter in Falluja who was too busy grooving on good vibrations to tell the truth. (So busy that it took him days and days and days -- was it five? -- for his "award winning" article to make it into print.)
Now Dexy's hooked his star to Chalabi. Did they fly into DC together? Did Chalabi's niece, the former Times' employee, join them.
Former Times' employee, we're not supposed to mention that. Because if the paper of record doesn't mention it, it just didn't happen. Right? In their world, that's how it works.
So Dexy Filk files "Iraqi Deputy, Back in U.S., Strives to Rebuild Reputation." From DC. Presumably the black t-shirt clad Geen Zone body guards didn't accompany him but was he still packing his piece? Propagandist and gun slinger.
Filk tells you that Chalabi dismissed questions of WMD and his own involvement with the lies. Well, he found the perfect paper to appear in, didn't he? The Times dismisses their own involvement in that as well. Irony, this is the edition of the paper that also announces Judith Miller's departure. Chalabi's being rehabiliated and Miller's leaving the paper. It's the life cycle of corporate media.
So Filk hems and haws but never explores. Never addresses the huge monies (government monies, US government monies) paid to Chalabi over the years, never addresses so much. Does he cover his eyes when he "reports"? Is that the explanation for his "award winning" Falluja reporting?
Miller's gone and there's a lot of back slapping going on online. Of the Times reporters, Miller got America over to Iraq, Dexter keeps us there.
Today, Dexy plays freak of nature. He offers us on the one hand (Chalabi didn't provide info on WMD that effected our decision), on the other hand a current investigation is studying it and on the third hand:
Another report, issued in 2004 by the Senate intelligence committee, did conclude that parts of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq produced in 2002 had been based on information provided by a defector associated with Mr. Chalabi's group who had previously been identified as a fabricator.
Here's a tip for Dexy, besides humans not having three hands, the Sentate intel committee says it happened. That's the report you start with. You don't muddy the waters. (Unless you're the New York Timid.)
Each day in Iraq, Dexy manages to get out the talking points so it's not surprising that he's trying to once again tell which way the administrative winds are a blowing. (This was Chalabi's latest audition. Apparently not successful enough to give Filkins the ultimate answer so hems and he haws.)
I'm sure Dexy was well recieved at the AEI sponsored dinner. I'm sure to him it was quite amusing, the seating arrangement. But "safe in His Green Zone," Filkins apparently hasn't learned that America's not laughing with him. (If he's hearing snickers, they're at him, at him.)
With 2058 American troop fatalities and 15,568 American troops wounded in action, I'm doubting many Americans find either seating arrangements or the attempts to rehabilitate Chalabi amusing. He's had enough access, take away his keys and cut him off.

Where are the brave online voices on Dexter Filkins?

Tony said to note Lambert from Corrente because that's the only other person he saw addressing the fact that Miller's departure still leaves other clowns at the New York Times.

C.I. had two entries up today worth noting and I know that because my prof distributed copies of them in class today. He is so cool. :D

He goes we're going to talk about the issue of dissent in war time, the issue of a patsy and the issue of ethics.

He thinks Judy's a patsy. A willing one but still a patsy. And he thinks she had plenty of encouragement from people at the paper in higher positions than she was.

Nina's in that class with me and she brought up the issue of 'bash the bitch' and how if this was about holding press clowns accountable all the gas bags online would be pointing out Dexter Filkins in this morning's paper.

We had thirty minutes on Dexter. :D We were discussing his Falluja reporting and there were two in class who weren't familiar with Dexter so we had to bring them up to speed.

Prof agreed that part of the Judy feeding frenzy had to do with the joy some have on trashing women but he added it also has to do with Judy being a "safe target." It's real easy three years after her work was seriously questioned to come along and say, "Nah nah, Judy's a liar!"

He said it's harder with Dexter Filkins because the criticism of him hasn't been as vocal online. People hold back the same way they held their breath until it was announced Iraq had no WMD.
Before that, and prof talked about some of his own friends, there was a fear that since there were no WMD, Bully Boy would try to plant some. But when the official report came out saying no WMD you got a lot of, "See I told you!" from people who were silent because they were too scared to stake out a position.

There's a guy in my class named Barry and I didn't know him at all and never thought much of him until today. Turns out Barry reads The Common Ills. Barry goes that C.I. takes on Filkins and not once and then move on. Barry goes a lot of people are going "chemicals were used in Falluja!" right now but where the hell were they for the last year? They kept their mouths shut about Falluja and they kept their mouths shut about Dexter.

I was so impressed with Barry. :D I told him that after class.

Should Dexter be stripped of his prize was 1 question prof asked. Everyone agreed he should be. He was in Falluja and he saw stuff he never put into his dopey, full of crap, white wash, rah-rah story.

This one guy goes that Dexter advanced his own career for about five minutes but the fallout for his propaganda will last much longer than five minutes. He goes that kind of propaganda kept America believing falsely that we were "winning" and that we were conducting ourselves in an honorable manner. He goes Dexter damaged the country and he damaged his own name.

I know he damaged our country and Iraq but I really hope it's true that he damaged his own name too. Lot of people don't want to talk about Filkins and when we met up with P.J. in DC (who works for the Washington Post), we heard all about how Dexter Filkins was a laughing stock in the press corp.

He doesn't deserve to keep his award and he should have never gotten it to begin with.

He's awful because of his lying about Falluja but it's not just him and Judy.

So I guess my point here is I won't be popping a bottle of bubbly and patting myself on the back and saying, "All is now right in the world!" Cause Judy's leaving didn't change a damn thing.

The other entry the prof passed around was "NYT: Drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain and the stenography goes on" and here's a bit of that one:

Kirk Semple and Sabrina Tavernise continue the New York Timid's long standing practice of printing anything they're told and without any attempt to actually witness anything with their own eyes in "U.S. Reports Iraqi Civilian Casualties in Anti-Insurgent Sweep." (You actually get rewarded for that at the paper unless you become a national joke -- see previous entry.) How many times can they type "The military said" in one article. And why are they unable to find one Iraqi witness, a resident of Husayba. One of the most laughable sentences includes a "military said, according to a witness."
Did they leave the Green Zone? The end credits tell us that Semple was somewhere in Husayba (Tavernise is listed as being in Baghdad). Apparently he was far from the action. No crusading reporter he.
Suddenly, the story breaks to tell you about a copy of a speech that John McCain will give today. That belongs in a story on D.C. (in the Washington section). Apparently even they got bored typing "military said."
Yes, the stenography goes on. The stenography goes on . . .

After class, prof pulled me aside and goes C.I. worked like crazy on those and noted another entry from the night before. He goes to tell C.I. to take a little break and not burn out. I told him that there was no break coming but I'd pass it on.

But yeah, C.I. did some amazing work and it stands out because so much of the stuff online today was a bunch of gas bags gloating over something they latched onto when it got popular. If the gas bags had any bravery, they would have been all over Dexter today.

I called Kat today and she told me she'd visited her friend who does the music class and all the students were all over her about Dexter Filkins and how come he hadn't been fired. So there's a bicoastal response on this among college students. We pay attention.

It goes back to what Maria's been saying and people my age have been seeing. We are rejecting this war and the Bully Boy. And reporters who threw in their lot with administration propaganda are being noticed.









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