The only Iraq article in the news section of the New York Times today runs on A6 and is written by Stephen Farrell, Solomon Moore and the US government.
Sadly, the competition among journalists for bylines is so nasty that the paper fails to provide byline credit to the US government for their work on the article. Sure, in the article (which we're not naming), Glory Hogs Farrell and Moore do acknowledge that Davie Petraeus "reported to the news media" from Baghdad but that's not a byline and that's fourteen paragraphs in.
Petraeus showed up in Baghdad to pass out US military statistics and the press grabbed them because they're far too lazy to compile their own statistics. They're also far too lazy to demand a methodology used for classification. And they're lazy enough to report it as fact because it was handed to them.
No other 'source' could provide so little and so little to back it up and still be considered worth citing. We're not interested in that portion of the article. The reporters (with or without the US government) note that Nouri al-Maliki is in England apparently for medical treatment for an ailment that's not specified. Apparently Petraues offered neither charts or handouts on that.
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stephen farrell
the new york times
solomon moore
the third estate sunday review
