The Joke that is Big Media Journalism

Cut corners, save money by using stringers, supervise them even less than employees, then expect any sort of competence:

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. Writing online today 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 for the most parts are opponents to 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 inflamatory and could have been 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.

Link.