Joint Chiefs shakedown?

rayrena rayrena at accesshub.net
Tue Jan 19 12:22:12 PST 1999


Liza Featherstone wrote, re: Hitchens' claims in Salon:


>And boy does he not substantiate it! He says it "was leaked". brilliantly
>vague
>sourcing. Does he mean it was just leaked to him?

This is all very lame, because a) it's one of those things that I *really* want to believe; and b) Hitchens does not have to resort to fictionalizing or to unsubstantiated claims--that Clinton kowtows to whatever interests serve his own at that particular moment is obvious and well-known. Why resort to psuedo-investigative-reporting techniques ("was leaked," "sources say," etc.) when just repeating the obvious over and over is more effective, especially from someone occupying Hitchens' rather lofty position? Vague claims like "was leaked" only cheapen Hitchens' sentiment.

And here is a piece with a similar theme from last week's Village Voice: http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/9902/cotts.shtml

Press Clips by Cynthia Cott

Why ruin a good story with the truth? That's the credo of many journalists, who would gladly downplay accuracy and fairness for entertainment value. They rarely cop to that standard, but you don't have to look far to see it in action. Case in point: last week, Christopher Hitchens and Matt Drudge peddled stories that sounded good at first, but fell apart under scrutiny.

[snip, the Drudge part]

Christopher Hitchens began his column in the January 11-18 issue of the Nation with a little behind-the-scenes gossip about Henry Kissinger. The scene: at a party two years ago, a Nation colleague was introduced to Kissinger, who growled, "The Nation? So I suppose that to you I am a war criminal?" Nervous laughter ensued. When the leftie pointed out that, these days, the Nation was just as likely to call Clinton a war criminal, Kissinger deadpanned: "Mr. Clinton does not have the strength of character to be a war criminal."

It's a great story, beloved by journalists of all stripes. The Nation's Eric Alterman tells it often, as does New York Press publisher Russ Smith, a/k/a Mugger. Indeed, Smith helped put the story in play, misquoting it first in his New York Press column of January 6-12 and then in the short version of his January 8 column in the online Jewish World Review (headline: "DRUDGE IS THE HERO").

Only one problem, boys: Dr. Kissinger denies it. Through a spokesperson, he told Press Clips that the first quote attributed to him is correct, but the second is not, and the Nation never checked the story with him.

Ironically, the Nation published the Kissinger quip in the same issue as a Jonathan Schell editorial called "Land of Dreams" in which Schell laments the rise of a "new media machine" whose primary purpose is to entertain. One of the machine's characteristics is its preference for fantasy over reality, thereby giving journalists the "capacity to mistake a world of their own making for the real one."

Nation editor in chief Katrina vanden Heuvel says, "We stand by the story," and notes that Kissinger was speaking in jest.



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