Glenn Greenwald claims Sunday Times latest story about the Iraq War is an example of hideous, corrupt and dangerous journalism. Greenwald writes that the smoke screen gives anonymity to government officials to let them propagandize the public, then uncritically accept anonymously voiced claims as the current truth.
Greenwald: That tactic continues to be the staple of how major U.S. and British media outlets “report, ” especially in the national security area. And journalists who read such reports continue to treat self-serving decrees by unnamed, unseen officials — laundered through their media — as gospel, no matter how dubious are the claims or factually false is the reporting.
We now have one of the purest examples of this dynamic.