Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Why Did McClatchy Publish The Names?

NotAllCommonKnowledgeIs
CommonVille


Regarding the interception of communications between a couple of bad guys that has led to the closing of a string of American, and one Canadian, embassy....

The NY Times and CNN censored themselves.

McClatchy News did not.

And, thus, McClatchy named names.

Here's why, according to McClatchy Washington Bureau Chief James Asher (in an EMail to the HuffPo):

"...Our story was based on reporting in Yemen and we did not contact the administration to ask permission to use the information. In fact, our reporter tells me that the intercept was pretty much common knowledge in Yemen.

On your larger question about the administration's request, I'm not surprised. It is not unusual for CNN or the NYT to agree not to publish something because the White House asked them. And frankly, our Democracy isn't well served when journalists agree to censor their work.
As I've told our readers in the past: McClatchy journalists will report fairly and independently. We will not make deals with those in power, regardless of party or philosophy..."


Don't know about you but I've gotta wonder...

If fine news organizations like the NYT and CNN (and many, many others) had made like McClatchy/Knight-Ridder in, say, 2003....Is it possible that thousands and thousands of people might not have died in Iraq for, essentially, no good reason at all?


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Need more background?...A Bezos-free Dan Froomkin's got it.

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7 comments:

Lynn said...

Dan Froomkin's sight is great! Thanks for sharing. Can he be on your blog crawl?

RossK said...

Good idea Lynn.

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West End Bob said...

Which explains why McClatchy is the only Excited States print media source I read.

The rest of the media sources down there are veracity-challenged . . . .

RossK said...

Bob--

They really are good.

And it looks like a lot of it stems from the fact that the folks running the show (in an editorial sense) have drawn a line in the sand that is positioned on very old fashioned, time-tested journalistic principles.

Imagine that!

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West End Bob said...

time-tested journalistic principles

Huh.

What a novel idea, eh, RossK?

Glad there's still at least one example of journalism still alive Down South . . . .

Norm Farrell said...

Register with McClatchy and choose from 8 different newsletters and alerts. As West End Bob says above, it's one of the best print media sources available.

Add Europe's Spiegel Online International and The Guardian as well for useful summaries not filtered by Washington DC. No paywalls... yet.

RossK said...

Thanks Norm,

Excellent suggestions.