In the first paragraph of "Sunni Militants Disrupt Plan to Calm Baghdad," you quickly realize that War Pornographer Michael Gordon fancies himself a magazine reporter as opposed to a reporter for a daily newspaper. That's apparent by how, in the middle of March, he starts off telling you what Bully Boy said in January. Oh Gordo, you couldn't write for magazines, you can barely write for a newspaper (even one that protected you while giving your partner in journalistic crimes, Judith Miller, the bum's rush).
He couldn't write for a magazine not because he can't pass a fact check -- as Stephen Glass and others demonstrate, the fact checking at our magazines is sorely lacking. (And we all know a left weekly that has refused to correct a false quote from John Kerry's 2004 DNC speech.) The reason he couldn't write for a magazine is that what passes for prose from Gordo clomps heavily along. He's a bad writer -- in every sense.
Read along and chuckle as he conflates Sunni and al Qaeda repeatedly. (They are one and the same, to hear Gordo tell it -- pay attention to the article inside and not just the section that made the front page.) Marvel as he quotes an intelligence report ("the sectarian war for Baghdad as the necessary main focus of its operation" -- is what Gordo tells you it says) when it turns out HE NEVER READ IT! He informs you, after the supposed direct quote from the report that it "was described" to him "by American officials." Unnamed. But now he's not just offering his unsourced whispers, he's presenting hear say as a direct quote from a report!
Where will his crimes end? When will his crimes end?
As always chuckle over his non-rounded reporting that always presents what the American officials tell him. The globe trotter's byline today is "Washington." Nothing like hearing what it's really like in Iraq right now from a 'reporter' in Washington.
Kirk Semple contributes "Suicide Bombers Using Chlorine Gas Kill 2 and Sicken Hundreds in Western Iraq." While Gordo tells you the military's about to 'get tough' with the Sunnis again (did they ever stop?) (no), Semple tells you that Sadr City (Shia) just got "a mobile medical clinic". Well, Sunnis who feel that Shias are backed by the US, that the US looks the other way and other grievances just got a new one to point to. Semple notes that the US military announced today the death of four US service members on Saturday. Here's a problem or issue with the news outlets, when they announce deaths, is it too much to expect them to do a running tally? AP last week couldn't note the number of deaths, in story after story, until Wednesday evening and then dropped it again. Then again, maybe that's the last thing anyone needs from the Times. They present 'statistics' (not in Semple's article) and note the number of US service members killed in the illegal war to date as 3196. The 3200 mark was passed mid-week. (The Times is using Defense Department numbers. Which is really lazy when you consider that the they could be using Centcom's announcements to tally it up each day.)
So, that's the paper and I'm in a holding position. We have another collage but we can't get it to load to Flickr. Fingers crossed, a new program that's being installed right now will allow it to load. But that's the hold up on The Third Estate Sunday Review and, had that not happened, everyone could have gone to bed two hours ago. ("Waiting on a car, waiting on a car on the hill . . .") Okay, new content up at The Third Estate Sunday Review:
Highlights
MyTV's Fascist House
Things you should catch if you missed them
The Albert Gonzales Show
About the under-reporting . . .
2 Books, 10 Minutes
TV: The Road to Boyville
Editorial: Mushroom Cloud
A Note to Our Readers
Truest statement of the week
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