Monday, October 24, 2005

Juan Cole on Rupert Murdoch and Judy Miller

Juan Cole explores Plamegate and the implications of the corruption of our MSM.

"The wider context is that Rupert Murdoch, and Richard Mellon Scaife, and other far rightwing billionaires have deeply corrupted our information environment. They are in part responsible for what happened at the NYT.

Miller attempts to excuse her shoddy reporting on Iraq's imaginary weapons of mass destruction by saying that 'everyone' got that story wrong. But the State Department Intelligence and Research Division did not get it wrong. The Department of Energy analysts were correct that the aluminum tubes couldn't be used to construct centrifuges. Elbaradei of the International Atomic Energy Commission was not wrong. Imad Khadduri, former Iraqi nuclear scientist, was not wrong. 'Everybody' got it wrong only in the sense that 'everybody' had been brainwashed by Rupert Murdoch."

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