Are Investigative Reporting Standards Slipping?
It is now widely recognized that the press failed to adequately analyze the Bush administration’s evidence for going to war in Iraq. After all the agonizing post-mortems that have been conducted on this subject, one would prefer to think the problem has largely been solved. Not so, unfortunately. A best-selling book by a top New York Times reporter that recently won the 2007 National Book Award for Non-Fiction — and is a candidate for an upcoming Pulitzer Prize — contains a number of gross distortions of documentary historical evidence. It also passes over relevant facts that would make for a more sophisticated argument. Surprisingly, Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA has received rave reviews and blurbs from some of America’s best-known investigative reporters. But it has also drawn Bronx cheers from prominent scholars of the Agency. Among the latter are: Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security Archive, Richard Betts of Columbia University, Christopher Andrew o
