I Cogitate

Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com
June 19, 2007

Richard Cohen's brilliant (and unintentional) exposé of our media

Richard Cohen's Washington Post column this morning is a true tour de force in explaining the function of our Beltway media stars. Cohen's column -- which grieves over the grave and tragic injustice brought down upon Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- should be immediately laminated and placed into the Smithsonian History Museum as an exhibit which, standing alone, will explain so much about what happened to our country over the last six years. It is really that good.

One could write media criticisms for the next several years and not come close to capturing the essence of our Beltway media the way Cohen did in this single paragraph:

With the sentencing of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald has apparently finished his work, which was, not to put too fine a point on it, to make a mountain out of a molehill. At the urging of the liberal press (especially the New York Times), he was appointed to look into a run-of-the-mill leak and wound up prosecuting not the leaker -- Richard Armitage of the State Department -- but Libby, convicted in the end of lying. This is not an entirely trivial matter since government officials should not lie to grand juries, but neither should they be called to account for practicing the dark art of politics. As with sex or real estate, it is often best to keep the lights off.

That really is the central belief of our Beltway press, captured so brilliantly by Cohen in this perfect nutshell. When it comes to the behavior of our highest and most powerful government officials, our Beltway media preaches, "it is often best to keep the lights off." If that isn't the perfect motto for our bold, intrepid, hard-nosed political press, then nothing is.

That is the motto that should be inscribed at the top of Fred Hiatt's Editorial Page in pretty calligraphy. And let us acknowledge what a truly superb job they have been doing in keeping the lights off.

Fatherhood, Muhammad Ali and Moral Courage
David Antoon
Truthdig.com
June 19, 2007

"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience.”
--Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal of 1950

I had never expected to have the opportunity to thank Muhammad Ali, but as I was preparing to pilot a 747 en route to Singapore I heard he was on board.  Ali was traveling with his entourage in 2005 to represent New York in its bid for the Olympics.  The year before it had been Ali’s courage upon which I reflected as I was forced to confront the issues where fatherhood transcends nationalism.  Saying thank you to Muhammad Ali was little enough.

Professor Andrew Bacevich, a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran whose son was killed in Iraq on Mother’s Day, has written extensively about “poisonous” U.S. foreign policy.  What was true in Vietnam is true today in Iraq.  An examination of policy between these two disastrous preemptive empire adventures by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter reveals the same.

Ali’s example reaffirmed my decision to speak the truth, a truth that altered my son’s life dreams and translated my private concerns into action.  In the spring of 2004, after an exemplary academic and athletic career, my son received a coveted appointment to the Air Force Academy, a step in his lifelong goal to be just like his father.  A son to make any father proud, but never more than when out of deep conscience and great moral courage he turned down his appointment to my alma mater.

The son of a career military man myself, I had followed my own father’s example.  Fathers, and the choices we make as fathers, matter.

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