Liberal Media?

The administration's creeping use of "Al Queda" to designate just about any and all opposition to US forces in Iraq was noted this weekend by the Public Editor of the NY Times, a practice that was originally pointed to by a number of blogs, including this one. The right's need for one diabolical enemy to focus their energies on belies the incredible complexity of the war in Iraq, as well as the larger issues surrounding Western Asia in general. Glenn Greenwald has a post today illuminating just how scandalous the NYT's parroting of the administration's propaganda really is:

Three years after Judy Miller's departure from that paper, the newspapers's own Public Editor has scathingly pointed out what is glaringly obvious in plain sight -- the defining practices of Judy Miller (blind, uncritical trust in the government's and military's sources) continue to shape and dominate much of the paper's coverage about Iraq and issues related to Iran.

Eric Alterman wrote "What Liberal Media?" back in 2003,(here's a condensed version) but the dichotomy of reality and perception continues unabated. Even though the public editor of the NYT is calling out the news page for lazy coverage that carries water for an administration that has lied brazenly time and again, the conventional wisdom has it that the press is without exception, tilted towards unfounded criticism of this administration. Stranger than fiction.