Category Archives: A Skeptical Read

More Iran Hysteria from the NY Times

The surest sign that another neocon bill of goods is being hawked in respect of the Iran “nuclear peril” is the revival of Rumsfeld-esque “unknowable unknowns”, a la Iraq WMD panic circa late 2002. In the real world, of course, solid progress is being made towards a plausible diplomatic deal to strengthen safeguards against Iran weaponizing the nuclear material it is producing. (See my latest on this at TIME.com)

But in the fevered world of the neocons, which the New York Time has, once again, bought into wholesale, the progress is illusory; Iran is playing games by only showing us the tip of the iceberg. Utterly shameless in its willingness to repeat the Judith Miller debacle, the Times tells us that Iran at Geneva agreed “to send most of its openly declared enriched uranium” to Russia for reprocessing into fuel rods for a medical research facility. Twice more in the story it uses the phrase “declared stockpile” — unmistakably signaling the reader that he or she ought to believe that Iran, of course, has other stocks of enriched uranium that are undeclared. Continue reading

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All the Hysteria That’s Fit to Print, Take II

Now the New York Times wants you to take seriously the idea that the prime issue for the American voter is the danger of al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons. Oh, grow up! Continue reading

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All the Hysteria That’s Fit to Print?

Benny Morris’s manic rant is further evidence that the New York Times op-ed page, like the New York Post’s, is willing to believe anything its told about ‘Mad Mullahs’ Continue reading

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Beheading Barack

First, he couldn’t be President because he’s Muslim. Now, we’re told, he can’t be President because he’s not Muslim enough! Continue reading

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Rosner, Haaretz’s Itchy Beard

The right-wing nationalist blogger always seemed a little out of step with his paper’s editorial line. Now, Carter’s visit has provoked him to growl menacingly at the editors Continue reading

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What Makes Groups ‘Special’?

How the latest piece of politically loaded U.S. military jargon from Iraq – “Special Groups” – made it into mainstream media nomenclature Continue reading

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Spitzer Pimped

The New York governor’s use of a prostitution service is not very interesting, but the language chosen by the media organizations to describe it is fascinating Continue reading

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