. . . about the paper of record
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said the newspaper has written so much about the issue of water-boarding that "I think this Kennedy School study — by focusing on whether we have embraced the politically correct term of art in our news stories — is somewhat misleading and tendentious."
Greenwald's response:
I'm not one who wishes for the death of newspapers, as they still perform valuable functions and employ some good journalists. But I confess that episodes like this one tempt me towards that sentiment. This isn't a case where the NYT failed to rebut destructive government propaganda; it's one where they affirmatively amplified and bolstered it, and are now demonizing their critics by invoking the most deranged rationale to justify what they did: political correctness? And whatever else is true, there is no doubt the NYT played an active and vital role in enabling the two greatest American crimes of the last decade: the attack on Iraq and the institutionalizing of a torture regime. As usual, those who pompously prance around as watchdogs over political elites are their most devoted and useful servants.
Perusal of the New York Times was once one of life's daily little pleasures. It's not something I ever do anymore. It's just another media source among so many others. I've come to feel similarly about NPR's Morning Edition or All Things Considered. I find myself hitting the NPR button in my car from time to time, but then switching to the local sports talk radio because I just can't stand listening to these NPR types. The very tone of their voices irks me. Better to listen to the jocks. Not as painful. I can't quite put my finger on the feeling I have as I read or listen to the non-jocks. It's as if their reporting assumes an imagination of the world that is now a world I would ever want to live in. It's not about agreeing or disagreeing. There are plenty of people I like with whom I disagree. It's more a matter of "Are you for real? You can say that and still take yourself so seriously?"
I didn't always feel that way. And now I'm not sure I feel this way because they've changed or because I have.
UPDATE: Shortly after posting this I found this comment #7 at Balloon Juice on another matter, which nevertheless amplifies what I was trying to say:
The problem is that we have no truly serious people in this country. We have one group of hacks, clowns, idiots, and sociopaths, and another group that is afraid of the hacks, clowns, idiots, and sociopaths. Our country may not yet be comatose, but it is certainly paralyzed. The DNC cannot say this because it is the truth, and the truth has been relegated to those people whom no one listens to.
It's the truly un-serious people in the media who seem to take themselves most seriously in their taking seriously that hacks, clowns, idiots and sociopaths. They seem to think that's what journalistic integrity requires. That's what I think irks me about them so–their blithe acceptance of the insanity as if it were normalcy. Their refusal to take seriously the truth tellers, well, because they're not "serious"; they're the ones nobody listens to.
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