Friday, August 13, 2004
"The Shadow Knows...
But Not On the Record
Rational behavior is creeping back into the national press.0 comments
A case in point from today's Washington Post:
This article by Mike Allen—White House Warns of Terror Strike—ends up buried back on Page 5 of the paper rather than plastered across Page 1.
We at Gotham Notes salute the bit of sanity that is creeping back into the offices of the Post.
But a side note to Mr. Allen:
Enough with the blind quotes, already.
"The Bush administration believes..."
as well as
"...a White House official said yesterday. "
Oh, really. Which one? If he doesn't want to be named, then he/she/it has noting to offer us but spin. And spin is in overabundance, as we all know.
Unfortunately, you give this cipher way too much airtime.
"The official ratcheted up administration warnings of an election-related attack..."
They seem rather at-sea over this whole presidential election process, don't you think?
"The White House official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, ..."
That is a Bush administration hallmark, only because you on the WH beat have allowed it. The only things on the record to emerge from this WH has been the State of the Union speeches and you see how well THEY turned out.
"... said the government had not gleaned any new information about political motives for an attack since the spring, ..."
Ahem...Why is it that you're wasting precious moments of your life talking to this person, then? He/She/It's telling you clearly that there's no news to report.
"Nothing to date indicates "an imminent operation," the official said."
Oh.
"Administration officials said over the weekend ..."
And
"Nevertheless, the official referred to "the preelection plot" ..."
Why not? It's a winner for the the WH so far; so stay with it.
"... the official said." / "the official replied" / "The official invoked the elections in Spain," and again, "The official invoked the elections in Spain, however, the official added, 'I have seen no indication of an imminent operation.' "
You sure let He/She/It get a fair amount of uncorraborated, unsubstantiated fear-mongering in there, didn't you, Mike? And without even having to submit to the evil "On The Record" trap.
Mike, get back to us when you've got a living human being who'll go on record. Otherwise, it's just more spin and we're not going to believe them (or you) until they fess up.
posted by Gotham 8:27 PM
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