NYT SUNDAY: Frank Rich Compares Woodward & Miller

[kpete]

Frank Rich: 'All the President's flacks'
RAW STORY

A column set to appear in Sunday's New York Times by Frank Rich explores the similarities between former Times reporter Judith Miller and Washington Post's Bob Woodward, RAW STORY has learned.

Both Woodward and Miller were informed by top White House Administration officials that Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA before Robert Novak outed her in July of 2003 yet failed to recognize the importance of their 'scoops' which have become the "drip-drip-drip exposing the debacle of Iraq." In contrast, Rich praises the "reporters who didn't have top-level access to the likes of Bush and Cheney who have gotten the Iraq story right."

Excerpts from Sunday's Times column, 'All the President's flacks,' by Frank Rich:


"WMD -- I got it totally wrong," Judy Miller said, with no exaggeration, before leaving The Times. The Woodward affair, for all its superficial similarities to the Miller drama, offers an even wider window onto the White House flimflams and the press's role in enabling them. Woodward knows more about the internal workings of this presidency than any other reporter. He has been granted access to all its top officials, including lengthy interviews with the president himself, to produce two Bush best sellers since 9/11. But he was gamed anyway by the White House, which exploited his special stature to the fullest for its own propagandistic ends."


http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Frank_Rich_All_Presidents_flacks_1203.html

[otohara]

1. This Ought to Be Excellent

Rich is the best!

[chelsea0011]

2. Agreed none better.

[annabanana]

3. rich nails it again. . . . n/t

[Pithy Cherub]

4. "Baghdad Bob" Woodward & Judy "Tokyo Rose" Miller

are paid propaganda con artists and enemies of the state. They will forever be known by lapses in ethical judgment so large that they will become case studies for aspiring newbie journalists forevermore.

Go Frank Rich:yourock:

[Faygo Kid]

5. Frank Rich is a True American Hero.

Surprised O'Reilly, et al haven't started the Swift Boat treatment on Frank Rich. Anybody know when he is going to publish a book? Totally gratuitous holiday photo follows.

[ClayZ]

6. Bravo Frank Rich "Fluck the flacks"

[kpete]

7. Full Article available now-NYT

All the President's Flacks

By FRANK RICH
Published: December 4, 2005

Op-Ed Columnist
All the President's Flacks
Who's laughing now?

Why Mr. Woodward took more than two years to tell his editor that he had his own personal Deep Throat in the Wilson affair is a mystery best tackled by combatants in the Washington Post newsroom. (Been there, done that here at The Times.) Mr. Woodward says he wanted to avoid a subpoena, but he first learned that Joseph Wilson's wife was in the C.I.A. in mid-June 2003, more than six months before Patrick Fitzgerald or subpoenas entered the picture. Never mind. Far more disturbing is Mr. Woodward's utter failure to recognize the import of the story that fell into his lap so long ago.
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/opinion/04rich.html?a=print

[NNadir]

8. I'm going to buy the NY Times tomorrow.

I only buy that propaganda journal now when Frank Rich, who along with Paul Krugman represents the "token liberal," writes.

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. Link (Time Select) to article, attached cartoon, and 4-paragraph excerpt:

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/opinion/04rich.html?th&emc=th
Op-Ed Columnist

All the President's Flacks

By FRANK RICH
Published: December 4, 2005

(snip)

Why Mr. Woodward took more than two years to tell his editor that he had his own personal Deep Throat in the Wilson affair is a mystery best tackled by combatants in the Washington Post newsroom. (Been there, done that here at The Times.) Mr. Woodward says he wanted to avoid a subpoena, but he first learned that Joseph Wilson's wife was in the C.I.A. in mid-June 2003, more than six months before Patrick Fitzgerald or subpoenas entered the picture. Never mind. Far more disturbing is Mr. Woodward's utter failure to recognize the import of the story that fell into his lap so long ago.

The reporter who with Carl Bernstein turned a "third-rate burglary" into a key for unlocking the true character of the Nixon White House still can't quite believe that a Washington leak story unworthy of his attention has somehow become the drip-drip-drip exposing the debacle of Iraq. "I don't know how this is about the buildup to the war, the Valerie Plame Wilson issue," he said on "Larry King Live" on the eve of the Scooter Libby indictment. Everyone else does. Largely because of the revelations prompted by the marathon Fitzgerald investigation, a majority of Americans now believe that the Bush administration deliberately misled the country into war. The case's consequences for journalism have been nearly as traumatic, and not just because of the subpoenas. The Wilson story has ruthlessly exposed the credulousness with which most (though not all) of the press bought and disseminated the White House line that any delay in invading Iraq would bring nuclear Armageddon.

"W.M.D. - I got it totally wrong," Judy Miller said, with no exaggeration, before leaving The Times. The Woodward affair, for all its superficial similarities to the Miller drama, offers an even wider window onto the White House flimflams and the press's role in enabling them. Mr. Woodward knows more about the internal workings of this presidency than any other reporter. He has been granted access to all its top officials, including lengthy interviews with the president himself, to produce two Bush best sellers since 9/11. But he was gamed anyway by the White House, which exploited his special stature to the fullest for its own propagandistic ends.

(snip)

INDEED it's reporters who didn't have top-level access to the likes of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney who have gotten the Iraq story right. In the new book "Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11," Kristina Borjesson interviews some of them, including Jonathan Landay of Knight Ridder, who heard early on from a low-level source that "the vice president is lying" and produced a story headlined "Lack of Hard Evidence of Iraqi Weapons Worries Top U.S. Officials" on Sept. 6, 2002. That was two days before administration officials fanned out on the Sunday-morning talk shows to point ominously at the now-discredited front-page Times story about Saddam's aluminum tubes. Warren Strobel, a frequent reportorial collaborator with Mr. Landay at Knight Ridder, tells Ms. Borjesson, "The most surprising thing to us was we had the field to ourselves for so long in terms of writing stuff that was critical or questioning the administration's case for war."

(snip)

And of course Knight-Ridder, the ONLY major news print purveyor that spoke some early truth about the lying that led to the Iraq War, is currently under threat of buyout by GOP cronies of the Administration. Can't have the truth getting out - it's dangerous to the Bush fascists.

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. FREE LINK TO ENTIRE ARTICLE:

http://edstrong.blog-city.com/frank_rich_bob_woodwardbushs_favourite_toady.htm

[Leilani]

11. Thanks for link

Great article!

[itzamirakul]

13. Thanks for posting the link...

the article by Rich is well-worth the reading.

It should be passed around so that it is widely disseminated. I don't like to see any copyright laws broken, but how can people know this information if it is not passed on?

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. To give this longer-lasting legs, I've posted in the Editorials forum with

the article excerpt and a free link to the full article:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x177366
Thread title (12/4 Editorials): NYT Frank Rich: "All the President's Flacks" - Woodward & gaming the Press

In that thread I've cross-linked to this one in the opening post for continuity.