-Caveat Lector-
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 14, 2007 7:07:29 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
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Subject: Neocon link to the ABC TV Network "Fake News" scandal
The neocon link to the ABC "Fake News" scandal
http://www.attytood.com/2007/09/the_neocon_link_to_the_abc_new.html
As predicted yesterday, the scandal over disgraced ex-ABC News
consultant Alexis Debat continues to spin out of control, with
major implications for the way that Americans have been getting
their news about the flashpoints that could determine war or peace
in the Persian Gulf and South Asia.
The story first broke in Debat's native France, but here at home
Laura Rozen continues to lead the pack on the coverage. http://
www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/09/abc-debat.html
Writing online for Mother Jones, she exposes that there were long-
time, serious questions about Debat by some at ABC News -- yet
those questions never stopped star investigative reporter Brian
Ross from airing sensational and inflamatory articles about U.S.
meddling in Iran and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, using Debat as a
prime source. Writes Rozen:
Interviews with journalists, think tank associates, and a former
government official indicate that there were warning signs about
Debat for years — even within the network itself. Two journalists
familiar with Debat's work point to ABC chief investigative
correspondent Brian Ross not only as the victim of Debat's alleged
deceptions, but as an enabler, who has promoted sensational stories
—including some that Debat brought the network— at the expense at
times of rigorous journalism standards.
She notes two Ross ABC "scoops" on Pakistan that were either
corrected or instantly denounced as false by Pakistani officials.
In the meantime, little attention had been paid to the French
journal Politique Internationale -- which published Debat's bogus
"interviews" with Barack Obama, as well as Hillary Clinton, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Microsoft chairman
Bill Gates, and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
But the French magazine deserves closer scrutiny. In continuing to
connect the dots between Debat and the push for a neoconservative
agenda that includes ratcheting up war tensions with Iran, it turns
out that a prominent member of the neocon movement has served as
editor of Politique Internationale for much of this decade.
Iranian-borm Amir Taheri (pictured at top) -- who edited a leading
Iranian newspaper prior to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah and has
since written for a number of western publications, including
several owned by conservative press lord Rupert Murdoch -- has been
a leading voice in Politique Internationale. It's not clear what
his current role is, but in numerous press reports from 2001
through 2006 he was listed as its editor.
In recent years, Taheri's work has been prominently promoted by
Benador Associates, a New York based public-relations firm that
specializes in Middle Eastern affairs with a roster of experts,
according to its own Web site, that reads like a Who's Who of the
neo-conservative movement, including Richard Perle and James Woolsey.
Taheri's articles appear frequently in Murdoch-owned publications
like the New York Post, the Times of London (which front-paged
colleague Debat's accusations of the pending U.S. bombing of Iran),
and the Weekly Standard. Ironically, Taheri has also written
occasionally for the Wall Street Journal, which will soon be owned
by Murdoch as well.
And like Debat, Taheri's work has been called into question in
recent years.
Most notably, Taheri reported in a column in Canada's National Post
in May 2006 that Iran had passed a law requiring the country's Jews
and other religious minorities to wear coloured badges identifying
them as non-Muslims. The story was received wide play in
conservative circles, but it was not true -- the newspaper had to
publish a retraction the next day.
A month later, the Nation reported there has been a long history of
questions about Taheri's work, including numerous inaccuracies in a
popular 1988 book by Taheri about Islamic terrorism called Nest of
Spies. The article lays out the allegations against Taheri in
detail and concludes that:
Even among a crowd notable for wrongheaded analyses, Taheri stands
out, with a rap sheet that leaves one amazed that he continues to
be published. It is here that the role of Benador is key; the firm
gives Taheri a political stamp of approval that provides entree to
hawkish media venues, where journalistic criteria are secondary.
It notes that just days after the bogus National Post article,
Taheri was invited to the White House to consult with President
Bush on Iraq with other "experts."
Now it turns out that Taheri also served as editor -- or claimed
to, anyway -- of a publication that also came to print Debat and
his fake "interviews" with world leaders who are opponents of the
neoconservatve movement, like Obama, Clinton, and Kofi Anan.
The made-up quotes attached to Obama -- saying the U.S. had
suffered a "defeat" in Iraq -- were quite inflammatory and could be
re-surfaced in the heat of a presidential campaign.
What type of working relationship did Taheri have with Debat at
Politique Internationale? Was the Iranian also a second-hand source
for Ross' inflamatory pieces?
In nearly seven years of the Bush administration, we've grown used
to the loud and often wrong drumbeat in the usual right-wing
publications. However, for this kind of clap-trap to find its way
-- unfiltered, apparently -- onto ABC News and into millions of
American homes was a huge coup for the neocon movement, but a huge
blow to the U.S. media, and our political discourse on the Middle
East.
------------------
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2007/09/abc-debat.html
Overall, the picture of Debat that emerges from these interviews is
of a smart, ambitious and cunning operator who would claim to be
getting text messages from Middle Eastern intelligence operatives
while at meetings with Ross and others at ABC, with tips that
seemed too good to be true (which some colleagues believe were
bogus), yet were used as "exclusives."
Sources provided multiple examples of stories that Ross—often with
Debat's contributions—reported, only to be forced to run a
correction the next day. For instance, one source noted, on
September 5 last year, Ross reported that a Pakistani general had
said that Pakistan would leave Osama bin Laden alone as long as he
didn't cause any trouble. The Pakistani government angrily denied
it, and the next day the ABC investigative unit's blog, the Blotter
ran a correction.
Another ABC news story largely sourced to Debat – claiming that the
U.S. government was advising and encouraging an Iranian Baluchi
separatist group Jundullah which was carrying out attacks against
the Iranian regime – was followed by an ABC report the next day
carrying a "sharply-worded" denunciation from the Pakistani
government.
One ethical issue raised by ABC's handling of Debat concerns the
investigative unit's use of paid sources/consultants, who are often
put on monthly retainer. But in ABC's use of Debat as a paid
"consultant" who also had for the past year and a half an
appointment at the Nixon Center, ABC also frequently had him
reporting on its blog, the Blotter, and appearing as a "source"
inside others' stories, blurring the line between source (and a
paid one at that, with outside -- also paid -- affiliations) and a
journalist, not clearly identified in the report. ABC also sent
Debat frequently abroad, to gather information which he would put
on the air and on the investigative unit's website.
Network officials strongly deny that ABC has tried to sweep the
Debat matter under the rug, and say they are taking the matter of
investigating his stories very seriously. "We acted expeditiously
to sever ties with Debat when we could not establish his
credentials and we did immediately investigate his work," ABC
senior vice president Jeffrey W. Schneider emailed me.
In fact, the French news service AFP reported as far back as 2002
that according to the French government, Debat had never been a
defense ministry official. "Alexis Debat, presented by the American
[TV] channel ABC as 'a former official at the French Defence
Ministry' in the context of the case of [Zacarias] Moussaoui … 'has
never belonged' to this ministry," the AFP reported Sept. 6, 2002.
According to the annotated Debat CV, he had at one time had a low-
rank desk job at the Ministry for less than a year.
Comments
My, my...how the tables are turned. During the Dan Rather/CBS News
debacle, it was yt and his ilk who continuously spouted "it doesn't
matter if CBS lied, the crux of the matter was accurately
reported". Apparently it no longer matters to yt if the crux of the
reportage is accurate, only that there were lies told.
Posted by: who's that guy in the mirror at September 14, 2007 12:51 PM
Holy cow guys! Have you read the Nation article on Benador yet? I
knew of a few instances where Taheri had fabricated stories, but
OMGWTF it is way, way worse than I ever imagined.
Read the part where he claims the Iranian UN ambassador Javad Zarif
was one of the students who seized the hostages in 1979. Turns out
Zarif was working as a teaching assistant at San Francisco State
University.
Posted by: Chris at September 14, 2007 2:03 PM
I think the report is pretty explosive. The American right is
planting false information in newpapers and journals around the
world to achieve various policy objectives. In this case it is war
with Iran. No underhandedness is too low for these conservative
cadres.
Posted by: Northern Observerver at September 14, 2007 2:31 PM
Pundit payola under the Bush administration (or, things that ARE
Bush' fault):
1. Drug abuse fake news stories by Mike Morris
2. Medicare Bill fake news stories by Karen Ryan
3. NCLB news stories by Armstrong Williams, paid $250K by Dept of
Education
4. Marriage initiative article in Natl Review by Maggie Gallagher,
paid $21.5K by HHS
5. Michael McManus, paid by HHS to write syndicated columns on
"Ethics & Religion"
6. Jeff Gannon (James Guckert) pseudo-reporter for a pseudo- news
website, called on frequently at press briefings to ask propaganda
questions
7. Dave Smith, paid by the Agriculture Dept in 2003 to write
articles for hunting and fishing magazines describing the benefits
of NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) programs.
8. And of course, Judith Miller of the NYT, who happily passed
along the propaganda fed to her by Curveball et al, all of which
proved false, in aid of the push to invade Iraq.
Posted by: demit at September 14, 2007 2:37 PM
The liberal movement in the US has nothing like the network of well-
funded, well-connected propaganda engines that the right-wing
movement has.
The WSJ, FOX News, the entire AM radio band, Washington "think
tanks" and "experts symposiums" as well as the majority of column
space in newspapers, presence on cable networks, etc etc etc.
I'm not even going to go into the Christian fundamentalist
propaganda factories.
Posted by: Chris at September 14, 2007 4:51 PM
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