Operations in Pakistan? Or just another sell job.
Whenever I see a story like this leaked, I always wonder whether to take it literally or whether it was "leaked" for effect.
Anonymous sourcing is an absolute must in today's government structure. There are important stories, wiretapping, torture, secret prisons, even the WMD lies, that very understandably would not reach print without the cover of anonymity.
However, over the last two decades, there has been an increasing practice of manipulation by government sources distributing official information as "scoops" only under an agreement of anonymity.
This accepted abuse of practice has substantially corrupted news reporting and frequently turned media outlets into propaganda arms for those in power.
I mean, is the US seriously considering this or is it just another effort to pressure Pakistan by manipulating the AP and its poor journalistic practice.
Top Bush administration officials are pressing the president to direct U.S. troops in Afghanistan to be more aggressive in pursuing militants into Pakistan on foot as part of a proposed radical shift in regional counterterrorism strategy.....
The plan could include sending U.S. special forces teams, temporarily assigned to the CIA, into the tribal areas to hit high-value targets.....
Anonymous sourcing is an absolute must in today's government structure. There are important stories, wiretapping, torture, secret prisons, even the WMD lies, that very understandably would not reach print without the cover of anonymity.
However, over the last two decades, there has been an increasing practice of manipulation by government sources distributing official information as "scoops" only under an agreement of anonymity.
This accepted abuse of practice has substantially corrupted news reporting and frequently turned media outlets into propaganda arms for those in power.
I mean, is the US seriously considering this or is it just another effort to pressure Pakistan by manipulating the AP and its poor journalistic practice.
posted by mikevotes at
2:58 PM
3 Comments:
The way I figure it, Bush has a few more months in office, and he's using it to say inflammatory things he probably couldn't say earlier. For instance, talking about 'freedom of expression' at the opening of the Games.
I wonder what else he'll say or do, since it'll be harder to hold him to account for it after January 20th?
By
r8r, at 5:02 PM
A lot of it is trial balloons I think. Then when it happens the public is prepared.
By
Anonymous, at 5:09 PM
R8r, It's interesting, they went through a period of "pouring concrete" of trying to set stuff in motion that the next president would have to follow through, but they seem to have backed off that.
....
Anon, Trial balloon was one of the guesses I had in the first version of this post.
By
mikevotes, at 6:37 PM
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