If a reporter gets all the facts of a story right, and hands in a piece that accurately captures what’s happening in the world, does he deserve an hysterical 2,300-word rant penned by a prominent blogger denouncing him as a propagandist?
If the reporter is Joe Klein, and the blogger is Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald, the answer apparently is yes.
Greenwald, who is usually a pretty astute critic of the media, went on at length yesterday in a puzzling piece about Joe Klein’s latest story, “Is al-Qaida on the Run in Iraq?” Greenwald is so upset about the story that he asks, “Is there a single principle of good journalism which Klein, in his short piece, failed to violate?”
It’s a strange question since, as I said, Klein gets all his facts right. He reports that local tribes in Iraq’s Anbar province have been banding together to fight Al Qaeda, and are helping U.S. forces in their attempt to drive the terror group out of the area. The story has been reported for months now in any number of major news outlets, and although Klein tries to make it sound like he’s got a scoop on his hands, there’s really nothing new or controversial here. If anything, Klein should be faulted with being so late to the story.
Unable to show that Klein got anything wrong, Greenwald instead attacks him for his use of an anonymous government source, which would be fine if he was being led astray by the source, but that’s not the case. Greenwald writes that, “the very idea of granting anonymity to government sources to do nothing other than repeat pro-government claims is both manipulative and moronic on its face”–but what he forgets (or maybe he doesn’t know) is that Klein is right, and that what is happening in Anbar is good news. If the tribes in Anbar turning on Al Qaeda is “pro-government,” then so be it, but Klein simply reporting on what is happening on the ground is just that–reporting. It’s neither pro- nor anti-government, it’s just the truth, and Greenwald should accept that.
He also complains that, “when a journalist does nothing but mindlessly repeat the claims of government sources which are completely consistent with–or designed to bolster–the claims being made by the administration itself out in the open, the journalist is doing nothing more than turning himself into a willing propaganda tool.”
Again, Greenwald is wrong, and the argument he’s making is both simplistic and silly. Sure, Klein needlessly relied on an anonymous government source, as well as other unnamed sources who backed up what his original source told him, but it turns out that what these sources told him happens to be true. I see the point Greenwald’s trying to make, but he’s barking up the wrong tree here.
Contrary to the overblown claims of journalistic malpractice that Greenwald is leveling, what Klein is actually guilty of doing is taking a story that has been reported elsewhere, and sexing it up with some anonymous sources to make it sound like he’s onto something that no one else understands. There’s nothing “mindless” about it, and it’s neither propaganda nor does it toe the government line. It’s just the truth.
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.