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July 17, 2007

NY TimesWatch: Accountability Journalism Edition

Ah! How the half vast editorial staff loves the smell of accountability in the morning!

Is this another example of "accountability journalism"? The Associated Press reports on a mildly interesting new statistic--the average citizen in some European countries is now taller than the average American--and vests it with great political significance:

America used to be the tallest country in the world.

From the days of the founding fathers right on through the industrial revolution and two world wars, Americans towered over other nations. In a land of boundless open spaces and limitless natural abundance, the young nation transformed its increasing wealth into human growth.

But just as it has in so many other arenas, America's predominance in height has faded.

Sacre bleu! Yet another miserable failure we can attribute to the Shrub's illegal and unsanctioned war on terror! Wasn't it just yesterday we lamented the National Suffering Deficit the Odious One has inflicted on an unsuspecting populace?

As I watched the news conference, it occurred to me that one of the things that might leave people feeling somewhat disoriented is the president's seemingly effortless high spirits. He's in a good mood. There was the usual teasing, the partly aggressive, partly joshing humor, the certitude. He doesn't seem to be suffering, which is jarring. Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly suffer: Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn't Mr. Bush? Every major domestic initiative of his second term has been ill thought through and ended in failure. His Iraq leadership has failed. His standing is lower than any previous president's since polling began. He's in a good mood. Discuss.

...Is he faking a certain steely good cheer to show his foes from Washington to Baghdad that the American president is neither beaten nor bowed? Fair enough: Presidents can't sit around and moan. But it doesn't look like an act. People would feel better to know his lack of success sometimes gets to him.

Ms. Noonan certainly hit the rhetorical jackpot there. What nerve! How dare the President deprive a deserving nation of their God-given right to watch their leaders wallow in confusion and despair! If he's going to put a brave face on things, if he's going to try and deceive our enemies, the least he could do, is do it badly so the folks at home could see through the charade; see that inside, he's bleeding!

Such inconsiderate behavior implies not only a deplorable Suffering Deficit, but an Incompetence Deficit as well! Fortunately, America has a half vast legion of pundits to point out such shortcomings. This is all part of the new Accountability Journalism - keeping government honest. And to make life even better, the media don't merely report; they "interpret" the news for us too!

What are the "so many other areas" in which "America's predominance . . . has faded"? AP reporter Matt Crenson never gets around to telling us. Instead, he tries to explain why the shift in relative heights is significant:

Many economists would argue that it does matter, because height is correlated with numerous measures of a population's well-being. Tall people are healthier, wealthier and live longer than short people. Some researchers have even suggested that tall people are more intelligent.

So are Americans sicker, poorer, shorter-lived and less intelligent than countries with taller populations? Definitely not poorer:

In the Czech Republic, per capita income is barely half of what it is in the United States. Even so, Czechs are taller than Americans. So are Belgians, who collect 84 percent as much income as Americans.

Well, it matters not whether this item is literally correct. There is undoubtably a Greater Emotional Truth to be told here. Such news makes us all feel smaller, and that is all that really matters, n'est pas?

Just as when Clark Hoyt, public editor of the New York Times, bravely spoke out against the administration's relentless campaign to mislead the public into believing the violence in Iraq was "almost exclusively" due to al Qaeda. The "literal" fact that military press releases predominantly mentioned, not al Qaeda, but the word "insurgent" or Sunni and Shia should not be taken as evidence that the Times "misled" its readers! Accountability journalism is not intended to hold the media itself accountable, you see. Accountability is a one-way street, aimed like a lasar beam at government.

Likewise, "accountability" would be wrongly focused on the Associated Press, were the public to ask why no major media outlets have covered the al Qaeda massacre at a tiny village outside Baquba. The public has no business wondering why the AP passed along fictitious accounts of beheadings that never occurred, even knowing the insurgency deliberately stages such accounts to foment sectarian strife. Rudimentary expectations of fairness, impartiality, or balance aside, the media give no promises that they will cover all the news, even when there are major massacres easily verifiable to them, nor do they warrant that they will retract obviously false stories.

Why should they when there are no penalties for getting the story wrong?

And as Ed Morrissey reports, surely it is up to the media to decide on that all-important question of which news is "fit" for our ears:

Nouri al-Maliki may have provided a push for Congress to get more aggressive with the White House over troop withdrawals in Iraq yesterday. However, the Prime Minister sounded a rather contradictory note, expressing confidence in Iraq's ability to secure itself while pleading for more time and pledging more progress on political reform. The New York Times reports on only one of these contradictory statements.

Readers who want the whole story have to read the Los Angeles Times to find out what else Maliki said about the Iraqi position:

Maliki, a Shiite, put on a brave face in the wake of the rising demand in the U.S. among Democratic and Republican legislators for withdrawal from Iraq.

He pleaded for time, pledging to achieve the passage of legislation that Washington has demanded as a condition of its continuing support, including an oil revenue sharing law, a revised constitution and the easing of government work restrictions for former supporters of President Saddam Hussein, who was captured, tried and executed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Maliki also said that Iraqi security forces could use more training from U.S.-led forces and needed more weaponry.

Perhaps someone could ask the layers of editors and fact-checkers at the Gray Lady why this got left out of their report. It adds another dimension to the story, a context which shows a politician trying to reassure his constituency that their government can survive an American pullout -- not endorsing one, as the Paper of Record's report implies. Maliki has to make sure that Iraqis do not lose confidence in the government in order to keep the tribes from throwing in with the various insurgencies for their own perceived protection, once we do withdraw.

The real news story is that Maliki has asked the Congress to remain patient. He has not given up on passing reform through the National Assembly, and understands that the US wants to see that reform start as soon as possible. Unfortunately, both papers chose to de-emphasize that part of the story, and in the case of the New York Times, overlook it altogether.

Reporting only half of a major statement by the Prime Minister of Iraq? Isn't that a bit misleading? Not if you're the New York Times.

But perhaps they're distracted. Perhaps they're working on some real accountability journalism - planning on holding some high-profile government figures "accountable" for their deeds:

Murtha claimed he had special information supporting the charges in that now-thoroughly discredited [Time Magazine] propaganda piece. At the time he made those statements Murtha suggested his claims were made on the basis of a briefing that he'd received from General Hagee, something it later turned out was not true. Hagee briefed Murtha on May 24 about the incident. But Murtha's statements tarring the men who'd risked their lives for us only to find themselves in legal jeopardy were made as early as May 17.

It would appear, though we've no idea where he actually got any of his information, that at best he may have had some access to the raw investigative NCIS files, something because of their very nature, that were never to be deemed conclusive or public, though leaks of damning portions of those reports did appear from time to time in the press. Whether those leaks were from NCIS or from Congressional staff or members with access to them is unclear. Wherever they came from, it is an outrage that this kind of information was leaked to the public.

If Congressman Murtha does not personally apologize to the Hilo Company Marines for his intemperate, false and unsupported charges for his own partisan advantage before Congress recesses, upon its return every single member of Congress should be demanding his censure. And anyone who doesn't demand his censure clearly does not seriously support the troops.

...perhaps instead of ludicrous hearings which even their friends in the press are beginning to ignore, Congress should show its support for the fighting men and women by initiating some hearings on how damaging portions of the raw NCIS files made their way to the press, and punish anyone on the Hill who is found to have played a role in that. In addition, in exercising its oversight responsibilities, Congress should be taking a close look at how the NCIS operated in this case and others.

The mantra "We support the troops" should, after all, encompass efforts to protect their legal rights with at least the same fervor the Democrats have argued for the legal rights of those charged with terrorism and held in Guantanamo. Shouldn't it?

There is no way on earth Rep. Murtha could have known, before the official investigation was complete, that "cold blooded murder" of "innocent civilians" (terms which have legal meaning) had been committed by the accused Haditha Marines. His statements, therefore, were out of line and inconsistent with the standard of considering accused defendants innocent until proven guilty as well as poor repayment for the trust shown in briefing him as a member of Congress.

Not only should he be censured, but the press ought to be conducting some serious soul searching for having relentlessly flogged his inflammatory statements before the investigations were complete. Because the last thing we need in this country is another deficit.

Especially an Accountability Deficit, either on the part of our public servants, or from those who are supposedly watching them for us.

Posted by Cassandra at July 17, 2007 08:35 AM

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Comments

Posted by: Pastaneta at July 17, 2007 11:17 AM

Posted by: Cricket at July 17, 2007 12:41 PM

Posted by: John of Argghhh! at July 17, 2007 01:19 PM

Posted by: Freedom Now at July 17, 2007 10:25 PM

Posted by: Bill Keller at July 17, 2007 10:38 PM

Posted by: Bill Keller at July 17, 2007 10:40 PM

Posted by: Ymarsakar at July 18, 2007 12:08 AM

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