The war between the Pentagon and Rumsfeld

Here's today's New Yorker magazine article by Sy Hersh, perhaps the greatest investigative reporter of our generation, about the war between the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Thanks to Karlin Lillington for the pointer.

Now that we're at war

We've been inundated lately by pundits, even from progressive voices such as Bill Maher and Nicholas Kristof, who say that now that we've invaded Iraq, we should stop questioning the administration, support the war and hope it ends quickly.

It took a writer from the Bay Area, Vicki O'Day, to put the issue in its proper perspective in a letter to the NY Times:

Nicholas D. Kristof ("Hearts and Minds," column, March 28) wants us to stop talking about how we got into the war in Iraq, since this is "now a historical question."

It is still relevant to ask whether this war is about control over resources while we are awarding multimillion-dollar contracts to American companies to operate in postwar Iraq.

It is still relevant to ask whether this war is aimed at promoting democracy in Iraq while political opposition groups in Iraq are being kept out of the loop as coalition forces topple their country's government.

It is still relevant to wonder whether this war is meant to provide political cover for our failing economy when the administration tells us that a huge tax cut is necessary for the sake of the troops.

We can't afford to distance ourselves from the policies and actions that led us into a war with Iraq. They are the same policies and actions that will lead us into the next war, unless the administration changes its course.

Meantime, Thomas Friedman has lost his marbles, while Salon's Scott Rosenberg has a more thoughtful analysis, The momentum of violence.

Peter Arnett gets the last word

Peter Arnett has some parting comments for NBC and the U.S. new media after he was summarily fired last weekend. Here are excerpts from "This War Is Not Working":

There is enormous sensitivity within the US government to reports coming out from Baghdad.

They don't want credible news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems. ...

[I am shocked] That overnight my successful NBC reporting career was turned to ashes. And why?

Because I stated the obvious to Iraqi television; that the US war timetable has fallen by the wayside.

I have made those comments to television stations around the world and now I'm making them again in the Daily Mirror.

I'm not angry. I'm not crying. But I'm also awed by this media phenomenon.

The right-wing media and politicians are looking for any opportunity to be critical of the reporters who are here, whatever their nationality. I made the misjudgment which gave them the opportunity to do so.

I gave an impromptu interview to Iraqi television feeling that after four months of interviewing hundreds of them it was only professional courtesy to give them a few comments.

That was my Waterloo - bang! ...

New in OJR

OnlineJournalism.com has a few to-the-point synopses and summaries from last weekend's new media conference at UC Berkeley.

Glaser Online asks: Should News Sites Charge You to See the War?

And Biz2's Jimmy Guterman will be doing a daily Media on Media weblog for OJR, initially focusing on what the media think of their coverage of the war in Iraq. Best line today, from Peter Arnett in his new gig for Britain's Mirror:

"I am still in shock and awe at being fired."

Depicting the war's dead

One blogger, after seeing the dead body of an Iraqi soldier splayed across the front page of today's New York Times, suggests that the sensitivity shown in prohibiting graphic photos of war casualties apparently doesn't apply to their dead guys.

Internet radio's 'biggest geek'

Today Wired News profiles Ken Rutkowski (whom I've interviewed in the past) of KenRadio.com, calling him Internet Radio's Biggest Geek.

Media and the war

IWantMedia has a very cool page of pointers to Media and coverage of the war in Iraq, including timely quotations. From Bill O'Reilly:

"If you watch too much TV news coverage, your perspective can get warped."

Especially Fox News.

Here's the LA Times' Howard Rosenberg on Fox's coverage of the war.

Tony Blair's 'grave mistake'

This may or may not turn out to be true, but it's interesting reading. It's about U.S. neo-conservativism, and Tony Blair's unexpected alliance with it, as seen from the European center-left.

In the Guardian UK: The tragedy of this unequal partnership. By opting to join the American hard Right, Tony Blair has made the gravest mistake of his political life.

A global view of the war

In These Times: Dissatisfied with U.S. press coverage, Americans are flocking to the Web for war news from the rest of the world. Excerpt:

Itís heartening to find that Americans in large numbers thirst for alternatives to the narrow spectrum presented by our native news outlets.

Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointer.