Behind the Scoops

A few years ago, during the run-up to the war in Iraq, I was quoted in a British paper lamenting the spoon-fed scoops we were seeing in the papers.

"It's a very cynical game," I was quoted as saying. "The reporters know these stories are nonsense and they know they are being used. But it's an exclusive. It's an exclusive built on air, but CNN says 'according to the New York Times', so the paper's happy, and it stays out there for a whole news cycle. So what if it's popcorn?"

I've always been ambivalent about that quote.  It gets the gist right but strikes me as overheated and imprecise. But ever once in a while a story pops up that makes me feel like the quote was (nearly*) right on the money.

Today's NYT dropped one such story on  Page One. And I went after it in Today's Papers. (Nearly two-thirds of my column does with that story.)

* I say nearly because, contrary to what I apparently said, I don't think reporters  "know these stories are nonsense." They just don't know that the stories are true--there's a difference.   

UPDATE: JustOneMinute also raises some serious red flags with the NYT's story.

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