I posted this on blogger.com in 12/2005, this might be relevant with a new war brewing on the horizon. We must hold them accountable.
Shame on the NYT for failing to speak the truth at a critical time, especially when it could have made a significant difference and possibly change the course of recent events.
All those so called journalist out there continuing to defend this administration should all have their true colors revealed and labeled as cowards and whores.
If you really wanted to seek and report the truth, then you should not let anything stop you from doing so. And if you somehow stopped short, or hold out on a story, or delay your reporting, or save your tidbits for a book, then you are in reality a sellout and please don't even bother trying to profess your innocence or fictitious circumstances or motives anymore.
True reporting, like in other third world countries and even modern regimes, requires courage. True journalism, the kind that merits admiration, requires a complete disregard to the powers that be and often necessitates the type of actions that are even deemed heroic. A true reporter will not let unjust laws stop them from reporting the truth when those laws are specifically put in place to shut them up. A true journalist, in the name of conscience, will somehow find a way to leak their story out to protect and serve others even if their personal freedoms or material existence is threatened; even in the face of death. This is heroic journalism.
Where are our heroes? We don't have heroes anymore. Those days are gone, all we have now are stenographic wimps seeking favors and handouts and loud mouth whores pushing their books and selling their souls. The rest are merely cowards of a shell waiting for a safer, just the right time that will never come as they linger to justify their retirement nest egg geting fatter and fatter.
Remember those reporters in the Killing Fields getting their story out? Even in times of war or under repressive regimes true reporting can still happen. Like John Malkovich, the photographer in the movie, under threat of arrest or even death, he still manages to capture pictures to show us the truth. This does not happen anymore. Reporters now ride in tanks and wear bulletproof vests and seldom venture out without a regiment of soldiers in tow that are now their protectors and friends. Their own self interest is now too valuable, more valuable than objectivity and truths, evidently. It's not worth if for them to confront any sort of abuse, corruption, or even outright lies straight to their faces, much less daring to talk to a stranger in Baghdad or just right here at home, on the street corners of New York.
I am losing hope, I long for the day when a truly courageous one out there will rise and stand up to lead us out of this muddy mess into clearer grounds. Please, let there be some left, let it be so. Don't shatter what's left of my delicate illusion instilled since preschool. But, until that moment comes, the rest of those pathetic journalists should be called upon and constantly blogged and loudly labeled their true colors for all to plainly see. This is my only hope.