Ed Driscoll, interviewed me for and quoted me in, an article in the New Individualist.
He seemed to particularly like my Parliament of Clocks metaphor.
Media
Who Attacked Us?
I find it revealing how we project our own prejudices on others, assuming that they think the way we do. From the Washington Post:
“They attacked us,” he says as the screen turns to an image of the second hijacked airplane heading toward the smoking World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. “And they will again. They won’t stop in Iraq.”
Every investigation has shown that Iraq did not, in fact, have anything to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.
Of course, the WP assumes that the solider used Iraqis as the unstated antecedent of “they” when, in context, a soldier fighting in Anbar almost certainly intended Al-Qaeda as the antecedent.
NY Times Fact Checkers Take a Nap, Incident#23,436
In an article on international productivity, the New York Times describes France’s reformist president Nicolas Sarkozy thusly:
France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy has pushed for a reduction in the workweek to an average of 35 hours…
Every other news story on the subject describes Sarkozy as a critic of the 35-hour work week who seeks to provide loopholes to allow workers to evade the work cap.
Even the NY Times’s own reports say so:
Although he provided few details, Mr. Sarkozy indicated that he would push for additional cuts in payroll taxes and ways to encourage people to work beyond the statutory 35-hour workweek.
This is a minor error. Yet, when you think of the sheer volume of the NYT’s reporting and its disproportionate impact on public debate, a minor error every story or two really adds up.
Blogs Keeping Check on Stupid Newspaper Tricks
This happens a lot. Someone writes a letter to the editor of a MSM publication. The letter is published — but with so many edits and deletions as to change substantially its meaning.
The old excuse for this kind of tendentious editing was, “space considerations.” That was an obvious lie in some specific cases, but there was enough general truth in the phrase to maintain the plausible deniability of editorial bias.
But now, with zero-marginal-cost Internet publishing, there is no excuse for editing on-topic, clearly written, non-abusive reader comments or letters. Yet some MSM editors still do it.
What We Love
As it turns out, John Barnes had some of it right he applied the ethos and culture of MFA schools to the Scott Thomas columns. We can find on military blogs (and here) more substantive critiques of the specifics, while keeping in mind that soldiers, being human, can be assholes and that war is not the most positive experience. Still and all, the truth is important and much looks like these were, at best, tales embellished beyond recognition. The narrator seems quite confused about guns, Bradleys and life. TNR’s firing of the “whistleblower” is also not particularly attractive. It’s hard to take the youthful editor seriously.