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Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a
nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a
"Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed
considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense
initiatives more successful? Can such an application of
science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable,
necessary or impossible?
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almarst2002
- 11:16am Oct 3, 2003 EST (#
14262 of 14270)
New York Times archives reveal a history of racist
fabrication - http://www.fair.org/extra/0309/nyt-africa.html
When New York Times reporters such as Lloyd Garrison in the
1960s and Joseph Lelyveld in the 1980s filed news stories from
Africa, editors at the Times routinely fabricated scenes and
manufactured quotes for their articles. In some instances, the
foreign editor colluded with the reporter to manufacture
scenes that they believed would conform to the racist
stereotypical biases that U.S. readers had come to expect in
reports from Africa.
When I brought these examples of racist journalistic
concoctions to the attention of New York Times editors more
than 10 years ago, I was virtually ignored. That's why recent
assertions by Times editors that reporter Jayson Blair's
concoctions and fabrications reflected a "low point" in the
newspaper's 152-year history (5/11/03) were disingenuous. A
much lower point had been reached in the 1960s, when the
newspaper began covering Africa consistently, as I discovered
when I dug up documents from the Times' archives in 1992.
almarst2002
- 11:18am Oct 3, 2003 EST (#
14263 of 14270)
Another Falsehood on Iraq Goes Unchallenged - http://www.fair.org/activism/powell-inspectors.html
On a weekend when the Bush administration's pre-war
intelligence on Iraq was a major topic on the Sunday
talkshows, Secretary of State Colin Powell re-circulated a
false story about United Nations weapons inspectors being
kicked out of Iraq in 1998. Some major media outlets let
Powell's comments pass without comment or correction.
On ABC's This Week (9/27/03), Powell explained that the
Clinton administration "conducted a four-day bombing campaign
in late 1998 based on the intelligence that he had. That
resulted in the weapons inspectors being thrown out."
The actual history is much different. On December 15, 1998,
the head of the U.N. weapons inspection team in Iraq, Richard
Butler, released a report accusing Iraq of not fully
cooperating with inspections. The next day, Butler withdrew
his inspectors from Iraq, in anticipation of a U.S.-British
bombing campaign that began that evening. Neither George
Stephanopoulos nor George Will, who conducted ABC's interview,
corrected Powell's false assertion.
In reporting on the interview, the New York Times merely
repeated Powell's charge (9/29/03): "Secretary of State Colin
L. Powell, in a television appearance today, noted that the
Iraqi leader threw weapons inspectors out in 1998, making it
more difficult for intelligence agencies to get hard
information." The Los Angeles Times (9/29/03), meanwhile,
paraphrased Powell's words to make them more factually
accurate, prefacing his quote with the statement that "U.N.
weapons inspectors had left Iraq in 1998 and did not return
until late last year." The quote immediately follows, giving
readers the misimpression that Powell accurately conveyed this
background.
As the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq
have become a public controversy, it is reasonable to expect
journalists to point out continuing misinformation on Iraq by
senior Bush administration officials. If New York Times
editors were interested in correcting the record, all they
would have to do is re-print a correction they ran over three
years ago (2/2/00): "A front-page article yesterday... on Iraq
misstated the circumstances under which international weapons
inspectors left that country before American and British air
strikes in December 1998. While Iraq had ceased cooperating
with the inspectors, it did not expel them. The United Nations
withdrew them before the air strikes began."
ACTION: Please contact ABC's This Week and the New York
Times and encourage them to correct Powell's false statements.
CONTACT: ABC's This Week thisweek@abc.com
New York Times nytnews@nytimes.com Toll free comment line:
1-888-NYT-NEWS
As always, please remember that your comments are taken
more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc
fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
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