The integrity of our news media continues to be compromised by the comportment of some of the old stalwarts who unashamedly behave as if they are above scrutiny and reproach.
Information recently released by NBC News, the LA Times, and the Associated Press quite suggests that the New York Times and CBS News might have been attempting to disseminate a midnight hour, election eve expose designed to unseat an incumbent President, without properly vetting it for accuracy. And, it is quite conceivable that the United Nations is stuck right in the middle of the conspiracy.
Furthermore, as the Kerry campaign and their media minions watched their hero sag in the polls with the election just days away, their despair rose to such heights that they chose to focus America’s attention on a supposed news bombshell designed to rock the electorate into a final capitulation. Fortunately, it appears that there is one honest member of the mainstream news media that was unwilling to participate in the cabal, and, instead, threw a sizable monkey wrench into their scheme.
This past Sunday evening, the Internet was all abuzz with reports of a huge cache of weapons lost in Iraq due to the bungling of the Bush administration. The story was released by the New York Times, and, on principle, I refuse to provide a link that in any way connects me to this national disgrace. However, as was typical, this became the Talking Points for Senator Kerry and his henchmen all Monday, with every media outlet focusing on the story. True to form, Mr. Kerry pointed out that this represented another colossal failure on the part of the Bush administration to keep America safe, and was yet one more indication of how poorly the war was planned.
One problem: it appears that this munitions storage facility at Al Qaqaa was cleared of the most dangerous weapons in question before the United States ever got there, possibly by Saddam Hussein himself. Fortunately for all those interested in the truth — which clearly exempts 99% of our news media — the NBC Nightly News elected to rise above all the bogus information being spewed on the airwaves, and actually reported some facts. As transcribed by Jim Geraghty of the National Review:
Jim Miklaszewski: April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army's 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al Qaqaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon. – NBC’s Nightly News, 10/25/04
As one would imagine, this revelation has not deterred the NY Times, or Mr. Kerry, from continuing with this charade. In fact, Matt Drudge — who first released word of the pending bombshell on Sunday evening — reports that the Kerry campaign has released a new TV commercial referencing these supposedly missing weapons. What a shock that the ad includes a reprint of the NY Times headline about this incident.
The truly scary aspect of this whole seedy affair is the implication that this is all a coordinated effort on the part of the NY Times, CBS News, the United Nations, and possibly the Kerry campaign. To try and flesh this out, let’s look at some of the facts and the timetable involved.
According to an article in Tuesday’s LA Times, CBS News’ 60 Minutes had this story last week, and was planning on airing it this coming Sunday, just 36 hours before the polls would open in the East. Unfortunately, when it became clear that the story was going to break well before this, CBS decided to hand it over to its reporting partner, the NY Times. However, what is
truly peculiar is that CBS got this tip last Wednesday, but the information had not been reported to the United Nations until the following Monday.
As William J. Kole of AP asserted on Tuesday morning, “International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei reported the disappearance to the U.N. Security Council on Monday, two weeks after he said Iraq told the nuclear agency that the explosives had vanished from the former Iraqi military installation as a result of ‘theft and looting … due to lack of security.’”
Hmmm. So, ElBaradei reports this information to the U.N. on Monday, but CBS and the NY Times had it last Wednesday. How did that happen? Well, according to this same AP report, “But since the disappearance was reported Monday in the New York Times, ElBaradei said he wanted the Security Council to have the letter dated October 10 that he received from Mohammed J. Abbas, a senior official at Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology, reporting the theft of 377 tons of explosives.”
Wait a minute. So, ElBaradei received this information from Abbas in a letter dated October 10th. Then, on October 20th, the NY Times and CBS News got the same information, and, as a result of this leak, ElBaradei believed it was necessary to inform the U.N. Security Council. Given this, if the only people who were in possession of this information prior to October 20th were ElBaradei and Abbas, this leak must have somehow come from one of them. And, since Abbas is in Iraq, and ElBaradei, as part of the U.N., is in New York much of the time, whom does the Fickle Finger of Fate Award point to?
The question arises as to why ElBaradei would do such a thing if indeed he is the culprit. It is no secret that ElBaradei is no friend of the Bush administration. His testimony at the U.N. during the lead up to the Iraq invasion was certainly not helpful. And, in return, the administration has been quite critical of ElBaradei and the IAEA for not better informing the international community of how advanced Libya and Iran were in their nuclear activities. Given this, as well as Senator Kerry’s love affair with the U.N., it certainly wouldn’t be at all surprising that ElBaradei would be quite happy to see President Bush and his whole team replaced.
However, regardless of motive, if this information was indeed leaked by ElBaradei or someone on his staff, his resignation needs to be tendered or his position with the IAEA terminated immediately. To be sure, the nuclear inspection arm of the United Nations cannot tolerate leaks about weaponry coming from the head of the organization. Furthermore, a full-scale investigation needs to be launched into determining how this information was transferred to CBS News, and when the Kerry campaign was notified of its existence.
The bottom line is that the integrity of our news media continues to be compromised by the comportment of some of the old stalwarts who unashamedly behave as if they are above scrutiny and reproach. This election period has been marred by regular conspiratorial incidents from some of this old guard that undermine America’s faith in our reporting institutions. When similar allegations of misconduct were leveled at the BBC in Great Britain over false accusations of the Blair administration having “sexed up” arms reports in Iraq, the British government was quick to levy significant fines and reprimands that lead to resignations all the way to the top of that esteemed corporation. By contrast, after some very high profile reporting fiascos here at home these last two years, there has been no similar action by our government to punish the guilty parties, and no corresponding senior management terminations or resignations. Certainly, the lack of consequence for these abhorrent actions ensures that they will continue.
With the kind of unseemly and almost tabloid-like news fabrications that we have been witnessing from some of our oldest and most well-respected news institutions, it appears high time for America to collectively invoke the memory of UBS’ Howard Beale, and let these media barons know that we are all mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore.
slep@danvillebc.com
Read more articles by Noel Sheppard
