The Role of the New York Times in the Selling of the Iraq War

Do you think former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair is a scoundrel for fabricating information and misleading readers? Consider what current Times reporter Judith Miller has done to assist the Bush Administration in misleading Congress and the American public in the selling of the Iraq War.

Do you think former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair is a scoundrel for fabricating information and misleading readers? Consider what current Times reporter Judith Miller has done to assist the Bush Administration in misleading Congress and the American public in the selling of the Iraq War. At least Blair's lies did not contribute to death and destruction for thousands of people. Yet the New York Times allows Miller to excuse her failures.



According to an article by William E. Jackson, Jr., published in mid-February in Editor & Publisher, the New York Times has taken a hypocritical stance in its criticism of the Bush Administration for "distorting the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, and in stampeding congressional and public opinion by spinning worst-case scenarios and 'inflating them drastically' -- to justify an immediate invasion last March."



For further information and links to ten additional articles critical of The New York Times' coverage of the Iraq War, see my March 19, 2004, Media Criticism blog entry.