The obvious answer would be no. We pick and choose all the time which information gleaned from sources is best to use in our reporting. But the WikiLeaks case is different, because source material is easily accessible, in full, somewhere else. And the matters at hand are often extraordinarily sensitive. In the case of Times’s report on Iran’s missiles, the decision not to publish the full cable at the behest of the Obama administration seems to have undermined the credibility of the report. At the very least, it has allowed others to do so, and brought into question the motives behind the emphasis the Times chose.
Those motives might be very reasonable. We don’t know as yet; there has been little comment from the paper regarding these criticisms. I contacted public editor Brisbane, who told me that he had not written anything in response to critics of Monday’s article and that he prefers not to comment outside of what he publishes. He also will not say whether he will be publishing on the matter. We will be on the lookout.
Couple of things. You are correct, the Times piece should have brought up the Russian’s “doubts” to the missile transfer. But to be FAIR, the use of Gareth Porter for any kind of criticism?!? This guy tripped over a couple million corpses in Cambodia while denouncing critics of the Khmer Rouge’s “land reform”, as he so eloquently referred to it. The WAPO added additional context to this story by pointing out that the Russian objection was based partially on embarrassment that its ballistic missile technology went from Pyongyang to Tehran, commercial ties with Iran’s nuclear program and opposition to the US ballistic missile defense system. Additionally, the recent launch vehicle used for an Iranian satellite was similar enough to a recent North Korean ballistic missile design to strongly suggest that there is ongoing collaboration between these two states.
The most pertinent question with respect to this is did the North Koreans transfer ballistic missile technology to Iran and what are the implications of such a transfer.
#1 Posted by Mike H, CJR on Thu 2 Dec 2010 at 04:46 PM