What is perhaps most shocking about the arrangement between Kennedy and Krock was how open and unashamed it was. Interestingly, no mention of Kennedy’s relationship with Krock was made in either of the two reviews published of Nasaw’s biography in the Paper of Record. The Times has repeatedly expressed its regret over its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Joseph Stalin by the notorious liar, Walter Duranty, during the 1930s, once it was revealed just how compromised his reporting had been. Perhaps, in light of the evidence turned up by Nasaw, another such statement of regret—if not apology—regarding Krock’s coverage of Kennedy-related matters might also be order.
It goes without saying that much has changed about the mores of journalism. Today’s top journalists have their own arrangements, of course. When, in the opening of the new Netflix series, House of Cards, an ambitious young female reporter offers the Speaker of the House a deal in which she promises to print whatever he wants her to print, the way he wants her to print it, no questions asked—all the while revealing more and more of her impressive cleavage—the notion that such a conversation might actually take place did not exactly strain credulity. We are, thankfully, through with the Arthur Krocks of the journalistic world. Whether we are really through with the kind of journalism they produced is a question for another essay.
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This random assassination of Krock's character is either willfully obtuse or naive, (which given Alterman's bona-fides seems unlikely.) While perhaps Alterman "would be hard pressed to find anyone under 60 who’s ever heard of [Krock]" amongst his high-placed media chums who never met a member of the power-elite who would intentionally harm the republic; many of us ( much younger than 60) know Krock all too well. If for nothing else than as the reporter who chronicled JFK's deteriorating relationship with the CIA, over troop escalation in an extraordinarily article entitled "The Intra-Administration War in Vietnam."
In it, he wrote: "The C.I.A.'s growth was "likened to a malignancy" which the "very high official was not sure even the White House could control . . . any longer."
"If the United States ever experiences [an attempt at a coup to overthrow the Government] it will come from the C.I.A. and not the Pentagon." The agency "represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone."
That was published on October 3rd, 1963.
Save it for the birds Alterman.
#1 Posted by New York Liberal, CJR on Fri 15 Feb 2013 at 11:06 PM