Bill Keller: "Insatiable Desire For Scoops" Fueled Press Failure In Run-Up To Iraq War

In the latest installment of TIME's 10 Questions, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller was asked by a reader in Portland, OR what he thought of the "free pass" the press gave the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq War.

"It was partly the insatiable desire for scoops people in the Administration were feeding about the potential threat in Iraq," Keller responded. "But a lot of it was just that we floated along with the conventional wisdom, the worst enemy of journalism."

The reader who asked the question may have been referring to former Times reporter Judith Miller. Miller has come under fire in the past for stories concerning Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction in the months before the invasion of Iraq. Her articles were often cited by Bush administration officials in justifying the March 2003 invasion. Miller later ran into controversy again when she was held in contempt of court and jailed as part of the Valerie Plame CIA-leak case.

In the interview, Keller also discusses the rise of online journalism, and the recent "Daily Show" segment which lampooned the Times as dated and out-of-touch.

"Well, that's the last time I try to be a good sport", Keller said. "Among the people who would miss us most would be the wise-guy pundits and scriptwriters for satirical TV shows, because they riff on the news we produce."

Read the full TIME 10 Questions here.

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Comments

[Derelict outlaw]

There was conventional wisdom afloat?

What conventional or radical or unconventional wisdom is he describing?

"But a lot of it was just that we floated along with the conventional wisdom, the worst enemy of journalism­."

He thought he was floating in wisdom but it was really just crap?

How does someone get that job?

[kindGSL]

The conventional wisdom that the religion of Islam was the enemy.

I have been hearing it from these guys for decades.

[Derelict outlaw]

He's describing the approval sucking PC mongering toadies that he's hired.

What liberal voice or intellect would want that kind of editor?

[Derelict outlaw]

I'm not a member of the MSM, not a journalist, I just read everything and I was curious to see this man's answer in this post. I find it incredible that a liberal could work or get a job in such a place. Doesn't he realize that the reason his newspaper and most of the others in this country contributed so to the 935 lies they published is primarily because they don't permit or allow dissent in the editorial space?

There is no "liberal media". That's an enormous myth in this country.

None. No freedom of the press, no dissenting voices. If there did exist such an institutuion in integrity in America for the last 8 years how could they have had their way?

This story and this guy's comments are illustrative beyond my wildest dreams of my point, he simply has no clue. When I was in school writing for the school paper we would have turned turds and toads like this out. Now people that think cannot get a job, they apparently only want puppets and fools like Miller and plagerists that write about Iraq from the Bronx.

[kindGSL]

The closest you can get to freedom of the press is comments in places like these.

When I needed a forum to end the Drug War the best freedom of the press I could find was AlterNet, mostly because the editors didn't bother to read us.

HuffPost wasn't up yet then and only now is finally getting better about accepting my posts.

I don't like to bother to post if it's going to be deleted. I'm here because I have a story to tell, not to spend time.

[Nonamnesiac]

An "insatiable desire for scoops" would have led to accurate reporting -- as the only story the lying Administration wanted out was the obviously dishonest one -- that Iraq had WMDs (despite Blix searching with CIA help and finding none).

No, the role of the media in cheerleading the American public into supporting the invasion of Iraq, just as it has been since the media pushed Manifest Destiny in the 19th Century calling the Native Americans savages, Remember the Maine for the Spanish-American War, the Gulf of Tonkin for Vietnam, is to push the wars the corporatists who run the country are pushing and then to cry crocodile tears when the obvious lies they tell to incite the populace are exposed.

Anyone following what was happening in Iraq at the time knew that Saddam was not a threat to the US or our interests. Blix's inability to find WMDs despite massive assistance in his search by US intelligence showed every day that the Administration's rationale for invading Iraq was simply made up. The media knew it at the time and just lied -- including the New York Times.

The other part of the media's response is always a big "mea culpa", even while they try to support escalation in Afghanistan.

[JerryLevy]

If insatiable desire for scoops cause the NYT to misreport the Iraq war at the beginning, what is the reason for their misreporting on the election, middle east, Iran, and the UN now?

[ibivi]

What a totally lame excuse for their lack of journalistic integrity. They lied and misrepresented. They were played by the Bush administration. They are lucky to have any readers at all given what they did.

[jeanrenoir]

In the case of the Times, it seems likely that a prejudice in favor of the neocons' AIPAC agenda in Iraq, rather than a pursuit of scoops, was to blame for positively touting the war in the writings of Judith Miller, Tom Friedman, etc.

[protagonia]

You would have an easier time covering the gaping hole in the media's inexcusable betrayal with duct tape than with words now.

[mizerello]

The NYT did what almost all of our political leaders did--they went along to go along. "Journalists" like Charlie Rose and Wolf Blitzer, Bob Woodward and Tom Brokaw, the NYT and WaPo all caved into the Republican media machine. They did it because they wanted "access" and mostly because, for too long, they were afraid of the GOP and they were all determined to prove they weren't "liberal," a trend that continues to this day. The day we throw out equivalency journalism will be a good day for democracy. The positive story count vs the negative story count is ridiculous. If candidate A (Republican) runs over someone and candidate B (Dem)eats someone's lunch, the MSM reports them equally; or, if they actually report the truth, some media watch group on the right counts the factual report about the hit and run as a "negative story," and proof of liberal bias.

[Derelict outlaw]

I'm thinking they are the GOP. Not that they wanted access, they had access because they is them.

There is no editorial freedom, no liberal voice on the NYT.

No counter balance within the various desks. People want to know what's killing newspapers?

It 's hiring people that want to conform and dress like them and sound like them etc.

There's no freed om in the press space, so there is now much less freedom in the country, simply that. If we want to return to a free society we need to have a revolution in the editorial meeting rooms of the press, Freedom of the press, what a concept.

[kindGSL]

I think you are exactly right.

[btdenver]

Where was the "insatiable desire" to get scoops about how the administration was lying?

[kindGSL]

Maybe scoops is a code word for dates.

[damilitantone]

He meant to say it was a lack of character, integrity and professionalism that failed them.

[voltage356]

Who in their the right mind would pay to read the NYT? Hey Bill, what's black and white and red all over Oh, you know Bill.

[bluestatehog]

Breaking News: Wild bears crap in the woods.

[Billy Hell]

Cheney in particular liked to leak a story and then quote it as justification for his actions.

[SamEllison]

Mr Keller, what did you know about Gonzo and when did you know it.
By keeping quiet the NYTimes allowed Gonzo to be confirmed as AG.
That is how you make news rather than uncovering news, which is your job.

[kindGSL]

Maybe it was a conspiracy to govern with a certain agenda.

[TremoluxMan]

"Well gee, if we didn't suck up to and lap up every bogus press release, then they wouldn't talk to us. We'd actually have to go out and do our job. Like dig for facts, develop sources, cross-check information. You know, Journalism 101. That sounds too much like work. We might scuff up our Guccis or misplace a Louis Vuitton."