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

[Marmen]

News you produce?

The media is usually made fun of because of the blinders you put on when you are reporting "the news".
Is that what you need the 1st. amendment for? to hide behind it and the fact that too many times you are too lazy to follow the trail wherever it may lead and instead you are happy with some administration official feeding you "off the record" crap and you pass it on to us as "journalism?

No wander you going down the tube.

Give it another year and the Huffington Post will be the new New York Time/Wall Street Journal/Washington Post, all rolled into one.

[kindGSL]

Maybe sooner than that.

[nonbeliever]

In other words we didn't give a crap about America being lied into a war but we cared about how many papers we sold. They knew there were problems with Judith Millers reporting (other reporters refused to put their name on her stuff because it wasn't sourced) and that she did not have verifiable sources or rather credible sources but they kept up the drum beat to war.Keller wasn't in charge that whole time but he has not come clean and neither has the New York Times.

[LyndainNY]

How fitting is it that Judith Miller is now a "Fox News contributor"?

[offred]

Ya think?

[northstar11]

bill keller ----makes his contribution to revisionist history.

[ManwithaParachute]

"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."

The wise-guys would have less to do if you just reported the news instead of "produce" the news. Regardless, get back to investigating this administration and every administration and stop licking the boots of politicians.

[20090120]

REALLY!!!.....did you figure that out all on your own or did you miss the last eight years....

[marthainmaine]

Getting inside scoops from Chalabi? Tells you a lot about the Times and the bush administration.

Wasn't it Egypt that would not allow Chalabi into the country because he embezzled large money?

What a basis for war and the reputation of the once grand Grey Lady.

[newyorkid]

2ionist neocons Fueled Press Failure In Run-Up To lraq VVar

[middledge]

'they RIFF on the news we produce'?

when did the NYT stop reporting and start producing news? and RIFF? sorry, but you can't use that word in this context.........i am embarassed for the paper of record.................

[cpscscs]

Scoops my ass. They were and continue to be lazy. Too lazy to make a phone call to check out Scooter's deep background b.s.

[k6007]

BS! They simply read from the script the admin, and the MIC handed to them. And, anybody that bucked the lines was fired, immediately.
They're doing the very same thing now with the corporateparty line. News is d.ead in this country.

[northstar11]

"""insatiable desire for scoops""------bob keller------bob here is a scoop --

-THERE ARE NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN EYERACK

source --just about the entire world and the nuclear inspectors

your job---- follow up on that lead

[Marcospinelli]

"It was partly the insatiable desire for scoops people in the Administration were feeding about the potential threat in Iraq," Keller responded.

=============================================================================

I don't even know what that means.

How do you know it's a scoop if you don't check out the information, test its veracity?

I've never thought Bill Keller was the brightest bulb on the tree and there you have him admitting that he's nothing more than a stenographer.

[Marcospinelli]

If you want to know what happened to quality journalism, read Ben Bagdikian's The Media Monopoly.

After Reagan won the election in 1980, conservatives began attacking the Fairness Doctrine. "The Fairness Doctrine required stations to devote a reasonable time to discussions of serious public issues & allowed equal time for opposing views to be heard."

A pretty good definition of quality journalism.

"Before newspapers & their conglomerates began buying broadcast stations, in 1969 when the Supreme Court ruled that the Fairness Doctrine was constitutional, the majority of newspapers editorialized in favour of the Fairness Doctrine. But by 1984, when newspapers had become part of the growing conglomerates that owned both newspapers & broadcast stations, those newspapers had reversed their positions & editorialized against the Fairness Doctrine. At least 84 percent of newspapers editorials then argued that the Fairness Doctrine should no longer be required."

The free press doesn't exist any longer. The media are now part of the establishment. Five media conglomerates own the most newspapers, magazines, publishers, movie studios & radio- & television channels: "These five conglomerates are Time Warner, by 2003 the largest media firm in the world; Walt Disney Company; Murdoch's News Corporation; Viacom; & Bertelsmann, based in Germany.

None of the dominant media companies bother with dominance merely in a single medium. Their strategy's been to have major holdings in all the media, from newspapers to movie studios. This gives each of the five corporations & their leaders more communications power than was exercised by any