Is the DDR (Communist East Germany) the Cheney-Bush model for governance?

It could be. Today's New York Times carried a story by reporter [sic] Michael Gordon, who collaborated with Judith Miller on some of her notorious WMD articles, with some hair-raising claims about Iranian meddling in Iraq, Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says 02/10/07. Gleen Greenwald writes about it in The NY Times returns to pre-Iraq-war "journalism" Unclaimed Territory blog 02/10/07:

That is a proposition that is extremely inflammatory - it suggests that Iranians bear responsibility for attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, even though that is a claim for which almost no evidence has been presented and which is very much in dispute. Why should that be the basis for a prominent headline when Gordon's sole basis for it are the uncorroborated assertions of the Bush administration? ...

Is that extremely provocative claim even true? Gordon never says, and he does not really appear to care. He is in Pravda Spokesman mode throughout the entire article -- offering himself up as a megaphone for administration assertions without the slightest amount of scrutiny, investigation or opposing views. (my emphasis)

East Germany's leading paper was Neues Deutchsland; Pravda was Soviet, and that's what Greenwald refers to. I should note that the pre-1989 versions of both papers should not be confused with today's versions; both are still published. To get a contemporary idea of what straight party-line "news" is like, see the Washington Times or FOX News.

Digby links to at possible explanation Well, That Explains It 02/10/07. Actually, what she links to is this satirical post, New York Times Reveals "Reporter" Michael Gordon Actually Voice -Activated Tape Recorder by Jonathan Schwarz at A Tiny Revolution 02/10/07.

She's right, that would explain a lot. It would save money to do things that way. The administration press office could just call up, read the story and the Times could print it verbatim. But, heck, that's old-tech. Just let them e-mail the story in!

Tags: iran, michael gordon, new york times

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