IN THE MAIL: A copy of Barack Obama’s new book, Dreams from My Father : A Story of Race and Inheritance. Haven’t read it all, but it looks pretty good. His experiences in visiting Africa and encountering blatant racism against Asians resonate with a lot of stuff I’ve heard from family members.
Archive for 2004
September 15, 2004
THERE’S MOSTLY PAJAMA-PEOPLE CONDESCENSION in this Editor and Publisher story on blogs and Big Media, but it does contain this truthful passage:
But, like Ryerson, Clifton warns that many blog readers can fall into the trap of believing anything presented well. “The bloggers cover an incredible spectrum of credibility and authenticity, just like newspapers,” he said. “We have the National Enquirer and The New York Times and a lot in between.”
I guess that’s a spectrum of reliability. But in which direction. . . .?
This story by Ed Carson in Investor’s Business Daily is a lot better, not least because he actually talked to bloggers. And the opening paragraphs are great.
UPDATE: Any similarities between the sentiments expressed by some of the people in the Editor and Publisher piece and those expressed in this column are no doubt the result of your perspectives being warped by hate-spewing, pajama-clad Internet bloggers.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another good column, by Dan Gillmor:
Media watchdogging isn’t new, either. But the newest version is nothing like the mostly polite coverage we in the business tend to extend to ourselves and our peers. What’s happening now is sometimes instructive, and always tough.
Journalists have demanded more transparency of others. Now, thanks to the ability of large numbers of people to dissect our work in public and in something close to real time, they’re demanding more of us. We’d better get used to it.
Read the whole thing. Kathleen Parker has thoughts, too.
CAYMAN HURRICANE UPDATE: Above is a picture by David Olson of Grand Cayman. (Note that the boat is named Juggernaut, appropriately enough.) Along with many others, it’s posted to this message board that updates the disaster recovery process. Damage seems to have been very severe. (You can see home video of the storm here.) And here’s a report from Cayman Brac, where the storm was less severe, but still bad enough. If you’d like to help — especially if you’re in the Miami area — go here.
RATHERGATE UPDATE: CBS will reportedly release a statement at noon.
UPDATE: Word is that they’ll defiantly unveil this documentary support for their case.
ANOTHER UPDATE: More here. I love this quote from Manhattan:
“Your analyst warned you about me.”
“I know my analyst warned me, but you were so beautiful that I got another analyst.”
Heh.
MORE: Kevin Drum:
I think it’s time for everyone to give up on this. The memos are almost certainly fakes, they’re sucking up media bandwidth that could be better used elsewhere, and Dan Rather is toast. Besides, there was really nothing in them that told us anything new.
Time to move on.
Move on, indeed.
BERLIN : Syria tested chemical weapons on civilians in Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region in June and killed dozens of people.
The German daily Die Welt newspaper, in an advance release of its Wednesday edition, citing unnamed western security sources, said that injuries apparently caused by chemical arms were found on the bodies of the victims. . . .
Die Welt said the sources had indicated that the weapons tests were undertaken following a military exercise between Syria and Sudan.
Syrian officers were reported to have met in May with Sudanese military leaders in a Khartoum suburb to discuss the possibility of improving cooperation between their armies.
According to Die Welt, the Syrians had suggested close cooperation on developing chemical weapons, and it was proposed that the arms be tested on the rebel SPLA, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, in the south.
But given that the rebels were involved in peace talks, the newspaper continued, the Sudanese government proposed testing the arms on people in Darfur.
It just gets worse, doesn’t it?
IT’S ALL ABOUT SHOES! No, I haven’t been replaced by the team from the now-defunct MadPony blog. But my Virginia Postrel-inspired TechCentralStation column today is about shoes. Sort of.
IRAQ UPDATE: Yeah, I haven’t paid enough attention, partly because I’ve been waiting for Austin Bay — who’s just back from there — to fill in the gaps. He does today with this cautionary column:
Money is ammo in Iraq, and right now our troops on the ground are short-changed.
Pay attention, Bush administration and Congress: The specific program with the most effective bang-for-bucks is CERP, Commander’s Emergency Response Program funds. The military needs a plus-up in CERP funds in Iraq and needs it now. . . .
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Ambassador John Negroponte asked for more CERP funds earlier this summer, but now it’s September. On Monday, the administration “re-programmed” $3.46 billion dollars out of $18 billion budgeted for Iraqi reconstruction. Some of that must increase CERP funds. Here’s a guess: $200 million channeled through CERP will have positive effects by December. The big infrastructure projects bankrolled by the $18 billion are necessary, but their payoff is three to five years away.
CERP fills that gap, and even small amounts can buy goodwill. In mid-July, I went on a foot patrol in Baghdad with another 1st Cavalry Division unit. One of the officers told me the Cav had experimented with a “designated spender” on foot patrols. A soldier would spend 10 bucks while on patrol, buying food in a souk or a toy from a store. The food would then be donated to a food bank and the toys given to kids. Unfortunately, the troops spent their own money. To use appropriated funds, another officer later told me, was practically impossible, “unless the funds are CERP. With CERP, a soldier signs a receipt (for the money), then the patrol generates a little local economic activity.”
Government funding mechanisms intended to ensure accountability are necessary — peacetime gripes about $600 aircraft toilet seats are legitimate. In this intricate war, however, our brigade and battalion commanders must have the economic ammo to reinforce security operations.
Here’s something on CERP money at work in Afghanistan, from InstaPundit’s Afghan photo-correspondent. And you can find earlier InstaPundit coverage of CERP issues in Iraq here.
Military planners in Washington would be very well advised to listen to what Austin Bay is saying.
Meanwhile, Arnold Kling sides with those who think we’re not confrontational enough: “Until we break the radicals, outspoken moderates will be a small, ineffectual minority.”
UPDATE: Elsewhere on Strategypage, we get this:
September 15, 2004: The U.S. is going to shift several billion dollars in reconstruction money to building up security forces in the Sunni Arab areas of central Iraq. While reconstruction efforts move ahead in the Kurdish north and the Shia Arab south, the continued violence by Baath Party supporters and al Qaeda supporters in central Iraq has delayed many reconstruction projects in Sunni Arab communities. The Sunni Arabs, who were favored during the long reign of Saddam Hussein (a Sunni Arab himself), are angry at losing power, and even more dismayed as they note the growing prosperity, and peace, among the Kurds and Shia they long ruled. Although a minority in the country (about 20 percent of the population), the Sunni Arab tribes control most of central and western Iraq. The way the media covers the Sunni Arab violence, you get the impression that the entire country is in flames. But in most of Iraq, American civil affairs teams, and civilian aid workers report no violence or unrest at all. That, however is not news. Sunni Arab terrorists are news, and it’s mostly Sunni Arabs who are being called on to fight the violence. Despite the attacks on local police (who are recruited locally) and civilians who support the government, resistance to “the resistance” is everywhere. Most Iraqis don’t want the 20th century tyranny of Saddam, or the 14th century lifestyle of al Qaeda.
It seems to me that the Kaus theory of “rolling elections” is looking better. We should quarantine the violent parts and cut them off.
UPDATE: Tony Blankley agrees with Arnold Kling, suggesting that aggressive action is being put off until the election, though he admits he doesn’t have any actual evidence. “As a supporter of the president, and his Iraq policy, I nonetheless find it hard not to suspect that an aggressive military policy to put down particularly the Sunni insurgency is on hold until after the American election on Nov. 2. Of course, I can’t prove that, and no one in the administration has said such a thing to my knowledge.”
I don’t know if he’s right or not — and neither does he, which he admits with a very un-Rather-like candor. I will offer this possible alternative explanation in the same spirit.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here are some Iraqi thoughts, from Omar, who offers comments on Talla’far and Fallujah. I think it’s safe to put him in the “get tougher” camp, too.
September 14, 2004
TERRY TEACHOUT writes that no one wants to admit mistakes anymore.
Well, bloggers do.
PAJAMABLOGGING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION: Heh. Somebody send one to Dan Rather.
RATHERGATE UPDATE:
Two of the document experts hired by CBS News now say the network ignored concerns they raised prior to the broadcast of 60 Minutes II about the disputed National Guard records attributed to Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.
Emily Will, a veteran document examiner from North Carolina, told ABC News she saw problems right away with the one document CBS hired her to check the weekend before the broadcast.
“I found five significant differences in the questioned handwriting, and I found problems with the printing itself as to whether it could have been produced by a typewriter,” she said.
Will says she sent the CBS producer an e-mail message about her concerns and strongly urged the network the night before the broadcast not to use the documents.
“I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story,” Will said.
But the documents became a key part of the 60 Minutes II broadcast questioning President Bush’s National Guard service in 1972. CBS made no mention that any expert disputed the authenticity.
“I did not feel that they wanted to investigate it very deeply,” Will told ABC News. . . .
A second document examiner hired by CBS News, Linda James of Plano, Texas, also told ABC News she had concerns about the documents and could not authenticate them.
“I did not authenticate anything and I don’t want it to be misunderstood that I did,” James said. “And that’s why I have come forth to talk about it because I don’t want anybody to think I did authenticate these documents.”
A third examiner hired by CBS for its story, Marcel Matley, appeared on CBS Evening News last Friday and was described as saying the document was real.
According to The Washington Post, Matley said he examined only the signature attributed to Killian and made no attempt to authenticate the documents themselves.
Read the whole thing. I have to say, I’ve spent years criticizing the media and this still makes my jaw drop.
(Via Jim Geraghty, who adds: “And this bit of news tells us that CBS was not ‘duped’ onto this, that they weren’t ‘fooled,’ but that they knew the documents were probably fake and ran with it anyway.”)
UPDATE: CBS was obviously holding this incriminating document in reserve!
ANOTHER UPDATE: New painting by Vermeer discovered! It’s been authenticated by anonymous experts who will later make clear that they didn’t!
FACTCHECK.ORG: “This latest ad from Moveon PAC is about as misleading as it can be.”
I’M SUPPOSED TO BE ON PAULA ZAHN’S (CNN) SHOW tonight about 8:40 Eastern.
UPDATE: Not bad. A bit short. What struck me most was listening to Seymour Hersh tout his new book in an earlier segment. Short version: He doesn’t think Rumsfeld, Cheney, et al., knew about Abu Ghraib. He thinks Iraq’s going badly but doesn’t think Kerry has much of a plan. He can’t say that there’s a coverup, but he’d like the DoD to come clean and reveal whether there’s a coverup.
Pretty thin gruel.
Listened? Yeah. As usual, I had no monitor, so I couldn’t see the show. Just an earpiece that wanted to slip out, and a camera to stare into. The picture to the right is one I took when I was on CNN a while back, but the view hasn’t changed.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Dang, just found out that I was a replacement for John Hinderaker of Power Line. That’s the first I knew about it, and it’s too bad, as Power Line deserves the lion’s share of blogosphere credit on this story, and certainly more than InstaPundit. But here (via Double Toothpicks) is a transcript of Power Liner Scott Johnson’s appearance on Brit Hume’s Special Report.
MORE: The Daily Recycler has video of Scott Johnson’s appearance on Brit Hume’s show. And here’s video of Little Green Footballs being plugged on O’Reilly. And here’s video of me on CNN.
Meanwhile, Hinderaker adds: “Actually, I think I may have been bumped by Wonkette, who was also on the show, for no apparent reason, except that she looks better than me. Of course, she also looks better than Glenn, not to mention the Free Republic guy.”
She’s very pretty, in a well-scrubbed, maternal sort of way. I, on the other hand, hardly ever scare dogs.
GREYHAWK’S put up his last post for a while at The Mudville Gazette, as he’s deploying to Iraq. But it’s quite a post.
JIM LINDGREN, who has considerable experience in rooting out fraud, has some thoughts on RatherGate.
There’s lots more over at Best of the Web, too.
JONAH GOLDBERG compares Dan Rather to Norma Desmond: “Dan Rather has flipped this around. The news is still big, but Rather has gotten very, very small.”
This certainly looks rather small: “Just heard from a very reliable source that CBS is looking into the political donations of document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines, fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, who assessed the memos for CNN and for the Associated Press.”
Two thoughts: (1) This might matter, if CBS were able to find any reputable document examiners to take their side; and (2) Does CBS really want to open that can of worms?
By running the story, they declared intellectual bankruptcy. If they do this, they’ll be declaring moral bankruptcy, too.
IN THE MAIL: A copy of Eric Alterman’s new book, When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences. Seems like bad timing — a better book for this week would be something along the lines of When Journalists Lie About Presidents: A History of Institutional Self-Deception and its Consequences.
EUGENE VOLOKH looks at how the Sodomy Lobby has destroyed marriage. Nobody tell Alan Keyes!
UPDATE: New link. Eugene emails that PowerBlog ate the old one.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Correction — it’s PowerBlogs, with an s, not PowerBlog, which is, confusingly, a different company. To their credit, the PowerBlogs people emailed me to ensure that their competitor wouldn’t get blamed.
NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: Rich Hailey explains what’s really going on in RatherGate.
ANDREW SULLIVAN ON RATHERGATE:
Any journalist who starts mistaking himself for an oracle needs to be reminded who he is from time to time.
CBS News has failed on all these counts. It did shoddy reporting and then self-interestedly dug in against an avalanche of evidence against it. Rather can blather all he wants about the political motivation of some in the blogosphere–but what matters is not bias but accuracy. His attitude, moreover, has bordered on the contemptuous; and the blogosphere has chewed him up and spat him out. He has acted as if journalism is a privilege rather than a process; as if his long career makes his critics illegitimate; as if his good motives can make up for bad material. The original mistake was not a firable offense. But the digging in surely is. It seems to me that when a news anchor presents false information and then tries to cover up and deny his errors, he has ceased to be a journalist. I’d like to say that Dan Rather needs to resign from his profession. But, judging from the last few days, he already has.
Ouch. He mentions pajamas, too.
Meanwhile Hugh Hewitt wants Congressional hearings on RatherGate:
Congress has held hearings on Howard Stern and “wardrobe malfunctions” at the Superbowl. It has held hearings on the networks’ disastrous performance on election night 2000. Now a network is party to a fraud committed with the obvious intent of influencing an election. Where are the hearings? This is very serious stuff, and the rise of technology capable of influencing elections is a worry on many minds. (See John Fund’s new book Stealing Elections.) It doesn’t do much good for Congress to arrive to conduct an autopsy. It should act before the fraud spreads.
It’s certainly a bigger deal than Howard Stern’s language, or Janet Jackson’s breast.
UPDATE: Jim Pinkerton writes that this is a turning point in media history.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Tom Maguire thinks that hearings are a terrible idea. I agree — at least so long as it looks like the major media are covering this story on their own.
D’OH! Yesterday I forgot to link to the Carnival of the Capitalists, which gathers together business- and econo-blogging from all over. Don’t miss it.
EVACUATIONS begin in New Orleans.
GEORGE CONWAY BRINGS US tomorrow’s news today! “Responding to this claim, a CBS spokesman said, ‘The credibility of our news organization should not be called into question by the homophobic rants of people in pajamas.'”
ERNEST MILLER says that CBS’s typewriter expert was wrong about 1s and ls. I’m shocked to hear it.