NYT: Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or Mass Distraction?

Today the New York Times' Public Editor publishes his analysis of the problem. Last Wednesday, the Editors of the Times published this: The Times and Iraq

By DANIEL OKRENT

Published: May 30, 2004

FROM the moment this office opened for business last December, I felt I could not write about what had been published in the paper before my arrival. Once I stepped into the past, I reasoned, I might never find my way back to the present.

Early this month, though, convinced that my territory includes what doesn't appear in the paper as well as what does, I began to look into a question arising from the past that weighs heavily on the present: Why had The Times failed to revisit its own coverage of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? To anyone who read the paper between September 2002 and June 2003, the impression that Saddam Hussein possessed, or was acquiring, a frightening arsenal of W.M.D. seemed unmistakable. Except, of course, it appears to have been mistaken. On Tuesday, May 18, I told executive editor Bill Keller I would be writing today about The Times's responsibility to address the subject. He told me that an internal examination was already under way; we then proceeded independently and did not discuss it further. The results of The Times's own examination appeared in last Wednesday's paper, and can be found online at www.nytimes.com/critique

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/weekinreview/30bott.html

Daniel Okernt is saying :

eveyone is at fault so no one is at fault.


No need to ask Judith Miller to resign.

In the future, journalists should be careful with anononymous sources.

But poor Judith Miller couldn't have know to check out her sources with people who don't share the same conflict-of-interest.

It's just a new rule the paper should follow.
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Above is a summary of Okrent. I want Judith Miller to resign from the NY Times.

That is, if the time is October 2002!

Ass-covering motherfuckers. Go sell it to a grieving family in Missouri. Or Iowa. Or Iraq. After you get out of ICU Mr. Okrent, we'll have a little discussion about how the Times might have served the public just a weensy bit better.

I hope this thing turns into the biggest outrage from our media of all time. I hope they're utterly and totally disgraced and spend the next 50 years apologizing and cleaning up their act.