Quality Jounamalism

So laughably pathetic you just cannot believe it when you see it.

See the NY Post, find ONE Iraqi that says "Maybe the Americans aren't running away after all". And notice this, they are unnamed except as "resident, a Sunni Arab", over the phone moments after President Bush unveiled his new plan. I'm guessing the reporter, Amir Taheri, called somebody to get what he wanted to have said. No one else is quoted or referenced except in mass and it is then Taheri's interpretation of what they told him. Real quality journalism there Amir. But then again, as discussed below, you are well-known for your quality journalism.

In fact, the only other individual quoted is an Iraqi government official.

Naturally, K-Lo who is as gullible as she is hungry (how she managed never to down anti-freeze is beyond me...although by the quality of her skills, perhaps she did), seizes upon this quote as a universality of opinion.

See the Washington Post's Joshua Partlow and Robin Wright actually interview several different Iraqs AND NAME THEM and what they do as they express skepticism:

"The main reason for what's taking place in Iraq is the settlement of historical paybacks," said Faiz Botros, 50, an Iraqi Christian sitting at a sidewalk table Thursday as car horns blared along a street in central Baghdad. "Neither 20,000 soldiers, nor 100,000, nor hundreds of thousands, will change anything. In Iraq, the politicians are still living in a mentality from 1,400 years ago. And this is the disaster of Iraq."...

...To the artists and writers drinking the anise-flavored liquor called arak under the fruit trees outside the Dialogue Gallery, Bush's pledge of progress carried about as much weight as the paper in Abdul Hamid's hands....

The Post's article then goes on to actually name and quote the individuals interviewed.

The latter is journalism. The former is propaganda. Amir Taheri is the same reporter that stated -- falsely -- that the Iranian parliament passed a law that "envisages separate dress codes for religious minorities, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who will have to adopt distinct colour schemes to make them identifiable in public. Taheri is anothe exemplar of the "Lowry" syndrome I discussed in the post below this one.

Propaganda is what the right-wing has left.