April 23,
2004
U.S. "Might-Makes-Right Rule"
In Iraq Reminiscent of Saddam?
"The invasion of Falluja has shattered the remaining hope of many of those Iraqis who thought the Americans might be able to free the country from might-makes-right rule, which has shadowed this region from the days of the Ottoman Empire to British colonial rule to Mr. Hussein.Yet [the Iraqis] sense of kinship with Iraqis in Falluja, Najaf and elsewhere runs deeper than any pull toward abstract notions of democracy offered by the Americans-notions that to them appear increasingly hypocritical given the reliance of the occupiers on overwhelming force as a means to an end."
- Edward Wong's report from Baghdad, April 22.
"Controversial" to Claim Alger Hiss Was Guilty
"He has long been controversial among historians, in part because of his conclusion in his 1978 book, 'Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case,' that Hiss was indeed a Communist spy."
- Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Felicia Lee, April 20.
Snarky On Kenneth Starr's Religious Beliefs
"Do you pray every night?....Do you believe that atheists go to hell?"
- Two of Deborah Solomon's questions to former special prosecutor Ken Starr, April 18 Sunday Magazine.
Bush Warned of Attack on "Lower Manhattan"?
"The [President's Daily Briefing] memorandum, declassified on April 10 by the White House at the commission's request, included some ominous information. It said that Qaeda operatives had been in the United States for years, might be planning an attack in the United States and could be focusing on a building in Lower Manhattan as a target."
- David Johnston and Jim Dwyer, April 18.
Reality Check:
The actual
PDB says nothing about "Lower Manhattan," only "recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York," a substantially wider geographic area.
Spanish Pullout "Serious Setback"
(Three Times) in Iraq
"Mr. Zapatero's move, though a serious setback, will not come as a surprise to the United States.A European diplomat called the pullout a serious setback for Washington because Spain's presence was more important symbolically than in a military sense."
- Marlise Simons, in an April 19 story headlined, "Spanish Premier Orders Soldiers Home From Iraq-A Setback For U.S. Effort."
Pot, Kettle
"When the notoriously unreliable Drudge Report blared the stunning headline in February that Senator John Kerry had had an affair with a woman on his staff, the gossip columns in Washington's newspapers did not print a word."
- Julie Bosman in a profile of the political gossip-blog wonkette.com, April 18.
Reality Check:
"Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception
- Headline to 14,000 word story on Jayson Blair's plagiarism and fabrications, May 11, 2003.
