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

[DLNYC]

The New York Times had access to the same information and common sense that I - an ordinary informed citizen - had. The people supplying them with pro-war information were lying, had a history of lying and you didn't have to be that bright to figure it out. This scoop claim is just garbage. What they really wanted to do was be cooperative cowards. There was no grand conspiracy here. Just a dereliction of duty based on a fear of being out of the mainstream.

[VinceTeeter]

WTF!!! Could there have been a bigger SCOOP than Bush/Cheney were lying through their teeth about Sadam's affiliation with terrorists and his WMD's ????? Nah, there's something else going on here, and a sad lesson not learned in Vietnam.

[regroupthink]

Another failure of the press during the buildup to the Iraq invaision was the aquiessence of Liberal pundants, commentators, columnists etc.. For the most part they were MIA. How could so many smart people collectively be so wrong at once. Could there be a common denominator that took presidence over their country and logic?

[Articulator]

No, anyone who questioned George was viciously attacked by the right wing spinmeisters. Phil Donohue had his show canceled just for questioning the war - according to the internal memo leaked.

[northstar11]

the did not want to be bill mahered------he lost his show for being forthright.

[Budokan]

Insatiable desire for scoops? How about "parroting wingnut talking points".

http://kennethmarkhoover.com

[easyrider1969]

Propaganda. All is phoney....­.I won't cry when the NYTimes goes under. Their coverage from 11/12/63 to the present is just some group's propaganda. "All the news we feel like printing."

[Amunaka]

Oh ya and now miller works for fox...who'­d of thunk it.....

[RobinSeattle]

Like the latest Iraq War was the first instance in which the NY Times parroted Pentagon propaganda. They have done that for more than 50 years.

In addition, Keller's statement shows how compromised NY Times reporters are by their social relationships with their sources, as they cravenly beg for newsy tidbits from them like the little kid asking for more gruel in Oliver Twist. Indeed, their reporters often act like pathetic hangers on you see in the music business who define their importance by who they are ligging off of.

[Amunaka]

Ayup....


Reassessing Miller

U.S. intelligence on Iraq's WMD deserves a second look. So does the reporting of the New York Times' Judith Miller.

By Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2003,

If the government must re-examine whether data may have been "manipulated" to support the war, surely the New York Times should conduct a similar postwar inventory of its primary WMD reporter, Judith Miller. In the months running up to the war, Miller painted as grave a picture of Iraq's WMD potential as any U.S. intelligence agency, a take that often directly mirrored the Bush administration's view.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2083736/

[Schvenzlerman]

Insatiable desire for scoops? Try the expression empire propagandist instead. Stop buying the rag that is a mouthpiece for the empire's war mongering.

[Archivist1000]

"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."

Right: I remember her on Larry King ... pontificating about her inside knowledge, which she was getting from Chalabi ... who was also feeding Cheney/Bush the same lies .... a circular fantasy squad, each one quoting the other.

Listen people: the reason Europe and Canada didn't SUPPORT the Iraq Attack was that THEY were getting REAL NEWS and FACTS ..... while Americans were being fed fear mongering BS ... which they lapped up in their need for revenge.

Yes, the press in the USA bears a lot of responsibility for the Iraq Attack ... but the people do too .. they WANTED to believe the lies ... they didn't DEMAND facts, and they didn't get them.

[Amunaka]

.... """"a circular fantasy squad, each one quoting the other. """'


Ayup ...not to mention ..."compet­itive intelligence"


The origin of the forged Niger documents
May 4, 2007


BILL MOYERS: The President said the source was British intelligence. But you discovered it was Italian intelligence. Do you know why the President said it was British intelligence?

CARLO BONINI: Well, what happened here is what we call competitive intelligence.

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean competitive? Why is it competitive?

CARLO BONINI: It means that you put a piece of raw intelligence in the circuit of the intelligence - allied intelligence agencies. And what happens is in the morning what is false in the morning turns into true facts at night. This information is given to the US intelligence. In the meantime, the same information is given to the British intelligence. The US intelligence checks the informations with the British intelligence. And the British intelligence says, "Yeah, we have the same informatio­n." The point is that the two intelligence agencies, they don't have to share their sources. So nor the Americans nor the Brits are going to say from whom they got the informations. But they got a confirmation.

BILL MOYERS: So -

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05042007/watch.html

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05042007/transcript1.html?iframe

[ashabot]

"Misreport­ing"?!?!?!

Are you kidding. That headline is "misreporting". The press LIED!

[BiffThiele]

Exactly. The Times was doing the misreporting. So, the riff is on the news they misreport.

[tiredofit10]

naw, the failure was because the press and the news media were afraid of losing their jobs. ANYBODY who said anything about the administrationBush) during those times, was dumped and ostracized.

[Maezeppa]

Bill Keller is full of it. A REAL SCOOP would have been the TRUTH!

[filo]

Did you expect them to do their jobs?

Sadly they were just delivering WH talking points.

[stevemarvin]

I agree. The press is not stupid. They're complicit. But I don't see them doing the WH's bidding as much as doing the bidding of the financial interests who profited from the enormous cost of waging the war - AND - I see the WH doing the bidding of those same corporate masters.

[Bendersky]

Amazing how easy it was for your average liberal shmoe to see through Bush's deceptions at the time, but a massive, powerful news entity swallowed the lies hook,line and sinker. They should have known better.
Anyone who was willing to believe George W. Bush in the lead-up to the war wanted to believe. The NYT should have spen there time looking for ways to punch holes in the story, not prop it up.

[Schvenzlerman]

It should be equally, amazingly, easy for the average liberal shmoe to also see through Obama's war deceptions, but they will support him in the empire's wars notwithstanding. Obama is Bush III.

[dbtexas]

So, we should just listen to conservative intellectuals like you?

[JoeAmerican]

"...may have been referring to former Times reporter Judith Miller" ... No no no, you don't get to suggest this was the ONLY episode of a "pass" or even begin to pin the whole thing on Miller.

You need to watch Bill Moyers "Buying the War."
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

[furey]

The Times was not alone in its "insatiable desire":

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/talking-head-like-a-hole/