[lbo-talk] media fell for Iraqi exiles' crap

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu Mar 18 07:47:16 PST 2004


Doug quoted:
> [The full list of articles is at
> <http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/8173201.htm>. Two
> are by Hitchens.]
>
> San Jose Mercury News - March 16, 2004
>
> GLOBAL MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN WAS USED TO BUILD CASE FOR WAR
> By Jonathan S. Landay and Tish Wells
> Knight Ridder
>
> WASHINGTON - The former Iraqi exile group that gave the Bush
> administration exaggerated and fabricated intelligence on Iraq also
> fed much of the same information to newspapers, news agencies and
> magazines in the United States, Britain and Australia.

It looks like an effort to exonerate the Bushies by blaming foreigners.

There are thousands of special interest groups pushing their agendas by disseminating information whose quality varies quite substantially. Thus by the sheer law of great numbers, there is a lot of dubious information floating around - and it is the responsibility of decision makers to separate "kernels of truth" from crap. It is call good judgment and it is the most fundamental job qualification for any decision-making position (like the ability to see is the pre-requisite to be a bus driver or an airline pilot).

The fact that Bushies and their lapdog Blair willingly or inadvertently gave credence to the information supplied by a shadowy interest group, even though multiple warning signs were abound, shows that they either deliberately deceived the public or at the very least showed very poor judgment. Either case disqualifies them as public officials.

Wojtek



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