Title: A Tale of Two Failures: Intelligence Failure and the Failure of the Press
1A Tale of Two Failures Intelligence Failure and
the Failure of the Press
2Overview and Reminders
- Remember final exam distributed next week in
class research papers due too - In lieu of a brief quiz evaluations
- Plowing ahead
3Not all were asleep at the wheel
- Walter Pincus Washington Post though his key
story on WMD gets buried on A-17 - Landay and Strobel Knight Ridder newspapers
- Seymour Hersh at the New Yorker
- Mark Danner and Michael Massing at the New York
Review of Books
4Why the media failedKamiya
- Psychological institutional ideological
- Psychological causes sound familiar
- the subtle internalized often unconscious way
that the media conforms and defers to certain
sacrosanct values and ideals
5Institutional causes for failure
- Kamiya the decline of newspapers the rise of
infotainment and media owners insistence on
delivering high returns to their shareholders
have diminished resources and led to a
bottom-line fixation unconducive to aggressive
reportingIt is harder to monitor the centers of
power when you work for a gigantic corporation
that is itself at the bulls eye of power. - The Faustian trade-off of access journalism
Judith Miller and the Chalabi disaster
6Ideological causes
- Made possible by an embarrassing lack of
knowledge about the Middle East - An unexamined assumption that the interests of
Israel are with those of the identical to those
of the United Statesthe press trades in an
extremely narrow range of opinion in regards to
Israel almost always right or right-center - Kamiya and Michael Kinsley also of Slate argue
this is the elephant in the room no one says
anything because they dont want it to be treated
like crude anti-Semitic slur
7Bonus cause An overmatched press
- Kamiya The mainstream media especially in its
current enfeebled form is simply not equipped
with a regime as secretive manipulative
vengeful and not to put too fine a point on it
malignant as the present one. Watching the
mainstream press try to contend with the
Bush-Cheney gang is like watching the Polish
cavalry galloping up in 1939 as the Wermacht
tanks approach.
8Failures of US intelligence
- The way it is supposed to work intelligence
agencies bring information about issues to policy
makers who then determine which of a number of
approaches are most likely to advance the
interests of the nationgood intelligence allows
policy makers to choose the best policy
9What were the failures of intelligence
- Evidence is NOT strong that the Bush
administration directly manipulated intelligence
to promote the war in Iraq - Evidence does suggest and reports have called
CIAs processes were catastrophically flawed - 2004 Senate Report Republicans in charge cites
mistakes in nuclear chemical and biological
weapons as well as specific efforts to obtain
WMD ingredients
10Senate Report and Groupthink
- Irving Janis conceived
- Groupthink suggests that groups without
precautions tend toward self reinforcing
delusions of unanimity morality and
correctness. Dissenters are marginalized and
most join the bandwagon to support the groups
findings. - Prevented by active promotion of devils
advocate of leaders not tipping their hand in
advance bringing in respected outside
authorities. In each case Bush does the opposite
11Additional causes of intelligence failures
- Dual intelligence operations CIA and defense
Bushs War - The powerful influence of administration
expectations on intelligence findings - The huge over-reliance of agencies on defectors
telling them what they wanted to hear
discounting stories from those who they did not
This explains Judith Miller as well
12Special Sources for this lecture
- Gary Kamiya Why the media failed Salon.com
April 10 2007 - Michael Massing Now they tell us New York
Review of Books January 29 2004 - Michael Massing Unfit to Print? New York
Review of Books June 24 2004
