This is a very good post (at the risk of being accused of smart bomb flattery) and Goldberg is now nominated for the “They said” king of all space and time. Andrew Sullivan, well… I nominate him for the Darwin Awards.

http://www.darwinawards.com/

Seriously this makes a lot of sense to me. I recently was reading a Pew poll on how people view the news media which said:

Public attitudes toward the press, which have been on a downward track for years, have become more negative in several key areas. Growing numbers of people question the news media's patriotism and fairness. Perceptions of political bias also have risen over the past two years.

Yet despite these criticisms, most Americans continue to say that they like mainstream news outlets. By wide margins, more Americans give favorable than unfavorable ratings to their daily newspaper (80%-20%), local TV news (79%-21%), and cable TV news networks (79%-21%), among those able to rate these organizations. The margin is only slightly smaller for network TV news (75%-25%).

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=248

Of course this poll was taken in 2005 and I wonder if this stands as pretty much the same today.

I would hope that people are becoming a bit more cynical about the news media as well they should.

One of the uglier things Goldberg wrote was probably in that 2002 New Yorker article one of your earlier posts linked to. (The link is broken). He toured a Hezbollah museum at southern Lebanon, which was about the torture inflicted on prisoners there (I think this was at Khiam). The museum itself was tacky, from Goldberg's description, and I don't doubt he was right--I also agree with one of your earlier posts that it's wrong to memorialize atrocities as a way of stirring up further hatred.

But one teensy little point was missing in Goldberg's piece--was it true that Israel and its SLA allies had tortured people? According to Amnesty International and HRW, yes, it was. The article was written before the Abu Ghraib photos came out, so allegations of torture by Western forces wasn't something Goldberg felt he had to investigate. He was content to say they were "alleged".

But that's the sort of journalist he is--he could write a massive piece about Hezbollah and their fanaticism and never get into the question of whether their Western foes were just as barbaric.

If you have more details about why the Spertzel article is misguided, we would really appreciate the discussion. Thanks!

Jonathan, this is completely (sort of) off topic, but I just watched the video of Chris Matthews and Jon Stewart over on Atrios' blog -- so so strange. Matthews, I mean. At the end, he asks Stewart if he can "tell you a story" and Stewart says yes. So then Matthews picks up his book "Life's a Campaign" which is the ostensible reason he's on Stewart's show and begins to say 'This is a book about...' and Stewart just dissolves in laughter -- because the whole 'interview' they've just held was Stewart saying the book is phony and sad and stupid and Matthews saying no no no it isn't.

When does the parody stop??

Babe Ruth, hee, good one.

Let's see, the actions of the U.S. re Iraq have been considered since at least the time of Cicero to be unjust; those same actions are considered by international law to be illegal, by the Nuremberg Protocols to be war crimes, and by even a cursory read of history to be doomed to failure - and Mr. Goldberg wrote, "In five years, however, I believe that the coming invasion of Iraq will be remembered as an act of profound morality."

The question seems to be, "Is Mr. Goldberg merely a kept whore with well-worn kneepads or is he just monumentally ill-informed?"

Superb posts (including the one from june 2005). You really take us behind the scene here and reveal the Tom Friedmans of this world for what they are. Thanks!

In five years, however, I believe that the coming invasion of Iraq will be remembered as an act of profound morality. Wow, did he call that one! He's like the Babe Ruth of geopolitical analysis!

Hey, the five years ain't up yet. He's got til March, another whole FU. Give war a chance, woncha? Jeez!

You obviously lack confidence in the system. What can we do to win you over? It looks like ponies won't work on you, so we'll have to bring out the Big Guns... Mimes and balloon animals! Come to the dark side,,,.

Seriously, who takes these news whores seriously? They have all the credibility of Ed McMahon.

Bradley has largely destroyed the Atlantic, by turning it into just another "political magazine". The trend started by the unlamented Michael Kelly has just continued as the magazine ceased to be one about ideas or interesting corners of the human experience, or less well-known professions and places, and became a place to recycle political observations.

I still don't know whether he just didn't understand the property he was buying, or merely had a plan to turn to the thing into another part of the pundit press. Probably the latter, as the justification for moving it to DC was to create synergies with the political press. Too bad..

Yesterday I saw some worn out bone sack on CNN report on the Democratic plan for a bailout of consumers from the mortgage demons. After a one sentence blurb on the plan she editorialized with "we have already gotten hundreds of emails saying 'don't bailout consumers!'" They have really declared war on the America people. They will not be satisfied until we are destroyed.