To refresh from what I posted on earlier this morning (NewsBusters; BizzyBlog [third item at post] -- here's the admission from New York Times reporter Qais Mizher, in his report from Basra in yesterday's Times:
Early last week, when the assault started, I happened to be in Diwaniya, another southern city, as part of my work as a reporter and translator for The New York Times.
Calling on my experience as a captain in the Iraqi Army before the 2003 invasion and essentially a war correspondent since then, I headed to Basra to see if I could make my way into the city and see what was happening there.
Yesterday, Richard Miniter at Pajamas Media pointed out that Mizher's self-professed "experience" means that he "was an officer in Saddam’s army."
A search on Mizher's full name in quotes at the Times shows that it comes up in 313 stories, going all the way back to September 2004. Mizher's regular reportorial contributions appear to have begun in late August 2005. He has rarely, if ever, had his byline alone on a story; the one excerpted above is either the first instance, or a rare exception.
Points/questions:
- Someone with more time than I have ought to go through the reports to which Mizher has contributed to see how a former Saddam officer might have colored them.
- How many other former Saddam officers are in Old Media's employ over in Iraq?
- Those skeptical of the need for folks like Yon, Totten, Ardolino, Dollard, et al need to remind me again -- Why should Old Media's wire services and "newspapers of record" deserve the presumption of greater credibility than the milbloggers?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters
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Comments Policy
[almost] full disclosure
April 1, 2008 - 10:23 ET by needleHey, this is [almost] full disclosure. What are you complaining about? It comes after 300+ stories (in more senses than one)? That’s nuthin’! Many of us have been waiting for years to find out how many and who on the staff of all of the MSM have been life time members of the Communist Party.
Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.
Great point
April 1, 2008 - 10:34 ET by Tom BlumerAlso it would be worth knowing how many self-described media "moderates" in polls of journalists are really hard-lefties who won't own up to it.
Undoubtedly
April 1, 2008 - 11:16 ET by Cape Conservative101% ;-) But who's counting ;-)
Perffect resume
April 1, 2008 - 11:51 ET by celatorSounds like the dude has the perfect resume to be a NYT employee.
Great moments in NYT Reporting
April 1, 2008 - 12:52 ET by MikeHuAmericans Unable to Stem Bolshevik Tide in Germany
Cologne, Germany
August 1945
NYT "Special" Correspondent Joachim Peiper
It is increasingly apparent in this city today that the vaunted American presense has done little to prevent Bolsheviks and anti-social elements from disrupting life for peaceful Germans. Everywhere one looks, one is confronted by the failure of the Americans to prevent Boshevik infiltration. Everywhere peace-loving Germans are ready to stand up to the Bolshevik hordes, but American arrogance and stupidity prevent them from resuming the fight. Indeed, it is increaingly apparent that "American" financiers and war profiteers are behind the Bolsheviks. This reporter has had quite some experience with the Bolsheviks and knows what methods would be truly effective against them. Indeed, if the Americans did not have their vaunted airpower, they would be rolled up by the Bolsheviks, just like they were in the Ardennes before our 6th Panzer Armee, I mean our European comrades...