Maybe media critics should read Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop"
Professor William Beeman's postings on the prestigious Gulf 2000 Web site underscore something that, in the journalism
business, is known as floating a trial balloon. Interested parties feed tantalizing morsels of seemingly credible factoids to correspondents, who then proceed to develop the "story" at will. Their editors at headquarters play up the story at will, too. G2K members must undoubtedly know that most newspapers have fraught with internecine comeptition: editors of various desks are always pushing certain stories for prominent display on Page One, and are always plugging favored reporters. Iran is usually a handy way of getting on the front page, and above the fold, too.
I have no way of ascertainting the veracity of the Financial Times story that Bill refers to, nor of Michael Gordon's dispatches in the New York Times. I know that the FT's editor, Lionel Barber, is about as tough regarding facts as anyone in the business, and he has zero tolerance for fabrications. And I do agree with my good friend, former NYT colleague, and fellow member of the Council on Foreign Relations Bernie Gwertzman that Mr. Gordon is an exceptionally diligent reporter. (I have never met him. He joined the Times many years after I left.)
In weighing the veracity of foreign correspondents' dispatches, I would recommend that G2K members should read -- or re-read -- the definitive novel about journalists, Evelyn Waugh's "Scoop." I don't mean to sound frivolous about a serious subject such as Iran and its alleged machinations, but "Scoop" offers insights that may leaven the high dudgeon in which some members find themselves concerning what the media are reporting these days. What's that old French saw: "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."