Washington Post columnist David Broder is sort of like the Big Bird of insider columnits*: he’s too big to ignore, but the costume constrains his vision and movements. Despite that, he somehow managed to notice that President Bush, if that’s his real name, is not proving to be the model of square-jawed leadership Broder has […]

Michael Massing wrote a piece for the New York Review of Books about a month ago in which he dismantled (as opposed to deconstructed) major press coverage of the Iraq invasion and the runup to it. Among the people he took to task was Judith Miller. Actually the list of people he didn’t take to […]

The Washington Post has an article about and excerpts from a speech Condi Rice was scheduled to give on September 11, 2001. It wasn’t delivered that day for obvious reasons, and it wasn’t delivered on any other day for even more obvious reasons.
The speech provides telling insight into the administration’s thinking on the very […]

Every few days or so I get an email from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). A good bit of the time I have no idea what they’re talking about, but every now and then a mention of something like developing uniform standards for electronic voting machines turns up. (A few days ago […]

When Fox News asked the White House for permission to use its tape of Richard Clarke speaking on background, it completely crossed the line between alleged news organization and organ of the state. The backgrounder agreements are always between the reporters and the subject, not the reporters and the subject’s employee. They’re meant to protect […]

March ended with the deaths of five US soldiers and four US civilian contractors, the latter of whom were horribly abused by a crowd of Iraqi civilians after being killed. That makes the month one of the deadliest for US troops, not to mention Iraqi citizens and foreign nationals, since the invasion began.
We’re only two […]

Iraq Viceroy Paul Bremer is establishing anti-corruption mechanisms for the Iraqi Governing Council and its various ministries. It’s likely that a billion or more has been skimmed from the reconstruction money poured into the country so far, but I’m sure the new measures will put an end to that at least until the new […]

Bush Administration To Outsource Cabinet Posts
By BTC NEWS
29 March 2004
Washington (BTC News) - In the wake of difficulties finding competent personnel to manage Cabinet-level positions, the Bush administration is making plans to outsource many of the positions to locations overseas. Administration sources wishing to remain anonymous have said that National Security Advisor […]

The Portland Press-Herald, just a few decades up the road from the mighty New York Times, has rules on the use of anonymous sources very similar — more strict, actually — to the newly revised Times version. The primary difference is that the Press-Herald actually observes the rules, where the Times appears to regard them […]

Bill Keller, the recently installed executive editor of the New York Times, has defended Pentagon transcriptionist Judith Miller for her completely errant reporting on issues of banned weapons prior to , during and after the Iraq war. I once described Keller as the journalistic equivalent of wonder bread, and I’m thinking that was too […]