Unbelievable Arroagance: LATimes

Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information ...

Is the LATimes writing about its "gropinator" story on Gov. Schwarzenegger that ran just before the election? Or its environmental coverage, which routinely quotes greenies and regulators, but not the regulated community?

No, of course not. This is the LAT's big expose:

As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Faced with a terrible dilemma -- to report good news about reconstruction, victory over terrorists or the upcoming election, or to manufacture negativity -- the LAT has decided to take on the roll of the pot, so it can call the kettle black.

Every Saturday and Sunday, the LATimes is full of "news" articles it accepts from others and runs ... for a price. And, "many of the articles are presented ... as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists." I actually lifted that last line from this morning's "expose," but it describes the articles in the weekend real estate sections, in which advertisers get to run their own stories, which do appear "as unbiased news accounts ...."

Granted, there's a significant difference in news value between "Pleasant Acres offers four floor plans" and the article mentioned in the expose, "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism." But what's the damage if, as the LAT admits, the stories are factual?

I've seen a lot of garbage in the LAT over the years, but this is one of the worst cases of manufactured negativity I've ever seen. And, thanks to Memeorandum, we see that the anti-freedom Left is eating it up:

And now we find out that, of the papers which remain open, the owners are taking money to run ginned up propaganda pieces trumpeting the United States. Freedom of the press. I guess that one didn't make it into the new Iraq constitution. (Middle Earth Journal)

It's just more bull****, the same tired **** of trying to spin as much as possible and at any cost. It's always a big part of any president's job to influence the media. But in the case of Commander Codpiece, it's all about blatant deception, tomfoolery and dirty tricks. How can anyone not be cynical? (The Peking Duck)

Yes, I'm cynical, but my cynicism is directed at MSM that make an anti-Bush, anti-war argument out this. Where is their expose on Al Jazera's editorial policies? Where is their expose on the positive role of a free press in Iraq's emerging democracy? Where is their expose on Beijing's imprisonment of journalists that don't suit their fancy?

Nowhere of course. Those stories are MIA, along with their expose on how they ran Jimmy Massey's lies about US attrocities without the least bit of fact-checking, and without a single correction after the lies were pointed out.