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The story of the story is the real story

7 comments on The story of the story is the real story

The story of the story is the real story

: Just got booked on CNBC’s Capitol Report (again) tonight, this time with (whew) John Hinderaker.

The topic: the reverse October surprise, the story of the missing explosives in Iraq. My take: The timing and placement and motive behind this story is every bit as significant as the explosives, missing or not. Of course, this smells like a campaign ploy. Media must recognize that it is used all the time; it is spin alley. And so the story of the story of explosives is the real story.

And, of course, it could have an impact on the election. Dick Morris said in the NY Post today:

Ultimately, this is not a contest of two men or two parties or two ideologies for supremacy. It is a battle of two issues

7 responses to “The story of the story is the real story”

  1. Richard Aubrey Avatar
    Richard Aubrey

    The explosives story is a lie. The media knew it was a lie when they made it up. They have in their own archives earlier reports which, if they believe their own reporting, make the current story absolutely impossible.
    That’s even not requiring them to do actual journalism.
    The most generous interpretation is that this was such a delicious story that they decided it was too good to check and the election was happening so soon they didn’t have time to check it anyway.
    That’s the most charitable thing you could say about Rathergate, too, and it’s wrong.
    Both were lies made up by the media. In this case, they were working with the UN and IAEA who think Kerry would be easier on them, and the democratic party which thinks it can always use another lie.

  2. Lee Avatar
    Lee

    I would argue there has to be a news angle, which you suggest is debatable in this case, to run such a story.
    I think the new part of this story is that the Iraqi gov’t was to report a cache of high-powered explosives as missing to the IAEA– and in Iraq, where the US is conducting a war. I am simply less jaded about the news angle than you seem to be, Jeff.
    I am just as cynical or skeptical if you prefer about timing and sources, though. Since the Interim Iraqi gov’t had, as I understand it, some time to make the report, they could well have held off. (THAT timing would also be political, of ocurse.) Someone leaked this.
    Whether or not the NYT has an ethical obligation to reveal a source, though, Jeff. . . . hmmm. . .
    I do beleive if the NYT got it from anyone associatd with the Kerry campaign (for which the campaigmn’s quick retort might be some evidence, then, yes, I think that is indeed part of the story or a related story that the Times should also report.
    Were I he reporter, I’d be equally interested in the the Web counter-report of the opposite tack– that teh explosives had already been missing. As far as I cna tell, that story exploded when Drudge “reported” what NBC had reported, only as Brokaw suggested last night, the report of their report was factually incorrect.

  3. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    “For that reason, the Times spun its own story, even though the evidence that its conclusions were unsupported is right there in the story itself”
    Unfortunately, neither the MSM nor the blogosphere are immune to falling into such traps.
    So the issue here isn’t so much the timing of the story, but the inferences made?
    And Richard, how do you know this story is a lie and that the media made it up? Can you point me to some of these archives of stories that prove them false? Just looking for some evidence of your (strong) claims.

  4. Jim Treacher Avatar
    Jim Treacher

    I think Jon Stewart’s appearance on 60 Minutes signalled the moment he surpassed them in terms of public trust.

  5. Countertop Avatar
    Countertop

    Large and influential media organizations like the Times and CBS continue to be caught in these charades, acting as nothing more than tools of one party or another. At what point do we consider removing there exemption under McCain Feingold and treating these acts, not as legitimate news, but instead as the direct in kind corporate donations they are. Surely someone in the ad business can place a direct $$ value on the benefit to the Kerry Campaign of this.
    This of course doesn’t mean I approve of McCain Feingold, I do not. However, if your going to set up rules, then everyone should have to play by them.

  6. Richard Aubrey Avatar
    Richard Aubrey

    Michael, Fox and others have been running reports from embeds in the Qaqaa area in the spring of last year. They said nothing about it. It’s hard to report something isn’t there unless you expected it to be there. And, since nobody expected it to be there, the reports were not that it wasn’t there FLASH!!! The reports were that rockets were there, conventional munitions were there, and that’s it.
    I had the misfortune, during Desert Shield, to be getting the live feed from the Gulf. I was surprised at how much stuff was reported (not to mention starting over because of a stutter or a truck going by) for each instant I would eventually see on the 630 news.
    From which I deduce that even the stuff that was played on the news last year is only a fraction of what the reporters turned in.
    The stuff not used is not, of course, on the web but the the reports from last year are showing up again.
    One reporter said he’d seen no IAEA seals when he got there with one of the first units.
    Then there are the more current issues like how do you get 380 one-ton loads past the Army’s check points without even one being discovered. Or 38 ten-ton loads without even one being discovered.
    Let’s go with the charitable answer: This was too good to check and fit so well with the mindset at ABC (Halperin memo, anybody?) and the NYT that it never occurred to some that it needed checking and it did occur to others not to suggest it. I don’t buy that for an instant, not least because these outfits are always going on about how competent, careful and professional they are. Thus, they can’t make mistakes. Thus this must always be intentional. Can’t have it both ways.

  7. ronbo Avatar
    ronbo

    From David Stout’s NYT story about the political implications of the missing explosives: “If it could ever be established that the explosives disappeared while Mr. Hussein was still in power, Mr. Kerry’s assertions that the disappearance illustrates the Bush administration’s incompetence would be diluted.”
    Comments: (1) “Ever be established”? I guess the burden of proof is on Bush. Wonder why. (2) “Diluted”? Not destroyed, vaporized, smushed? Guess not.
    I realize that Kerry & Co. will bear any burden and pay any price to defeat Bush, but there must be a point at which the ends no longer justify the means.