[Dean's World] Dave Price: Vast Resources And Layers Of Editing

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Vast Resources And Layers Of Editing
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1181371579.shtml


   None of it, [1]apparently, gives Newsweek senior editor Michael Hirsh
   the slightest clue about what's actually happening in Iraq.

     The Washington commentariat has suggested recently that Bush seems
     ready to pronounce the imminent end of his âsurge,â which by
     several accounts has failed both to secure large parts of Baghdad
     and, on a more strategic level, to prod the still-paralyzed Iraqi
     government to govern.

   Maybe if Hirsh spent less time with the Washington commentariat and
   more time [2]listening to generals he would know all the troops for
   the surge haven't even arrived, let alone been deployed into the
   surge. And how many times has Petraeus said the strategy will take all
   summer to unfold? Sheesh. Hirsh would have called the D-Day invasion a
   failure before our troops even got to Normandy.

     ...the Shiite-led government, which is increasingly dominated by
     the virulently anti-American Sadr,...

   Uh, no. His ministers [3]resigned from the government; at the time, it
   was called "a blow to the Maliki government." How can such basic
   errors survive Hirsh's fact-checkers? Or do they simply accept that
   any bad news must be true, even if it directly contradicts other
   alleged bad news?
   Hirsh then goes on to claim the surge is preventing us from training
   Iraqis, but given his apparent ignorance of the most basic facts on
   Iraq I'm not giving this much credence.
   Sadly, this sort of thing happens every day, an inexorable, gargantuan
   flood of execrable misinformation that is the fondest friend and best
   hope of America's enemies. Most people will simply read Hirsh's piece
   and accept his assertions as fact, while others even go on to cite it.
   The vast MSM echo chamber will roll on.

References

   1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19099768/site/newsweek/page/2/
   2. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1181256514.shtml
   3. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18131236/