Follow us on social

Ned Price: Would I lie to you?

Ned Price: Would I lie to you?

An AP reporter does his job and pushes back on "intelligence" behind a reported Russian propaganda film. Bravo.

Analysis | Europe

In 1971, CIA Director Richard Helms told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that, “The nation must to a degree take it on faith that we too are honorable men devoted to her service.” When I became a British journalist 15 years later, the hoots of derision these words had provoked among journalists were still echoing in our collective ears. A veteran colleague advised me instead to remember the thought that a journalist going into an interview should keep in mind “Why is this lying bastard lying to me?”

To say this is not to impugn the honor of Mr. Helms or his colleagues. No doubt most of them were in fact patriotic men doing their duty according to their lights. The point is that by the same token, it is the duty of journalists to interrogate those in office — and especially those making claims on the basis of “secret” information — and not take what they are told “on faith.”

Except in extreme cases of illegality, government officials cannot act like journalists and constantly seek out and reveal confidential information. If they did that, government would soon grind to a halt. If something is being done that is against their professional ethics or personal conscience, they must resign. But if journalists start behaving like government officials repeating official propaganda, U.S. democracy will have taken a long step towards its grave.

I was reminded of this when watching the exchange — which should be shown in every training course for journalists as long as the profession lasts — between State Department spokesman Ned Price and Matt Lee of Associated Press concerning the U.S. government claim, on the basis of alleged but unspecified “intelligence,” that Russia has fabricated a “false flag” video claiming to show a Ukrainian attack as a pretext to invade Ukraine. 

Lee asked, " What evidence do you have to support the idea that there is some propaganda film in the making?" 

Price: “This is information that is available to us, that we are now giving you.”

Lee: “That’s not evidence, Ned. That’s you saying it…You just come out and say this and expect us to believe it without you showing a shred of evidence that it’s actually true, other than when I ask, or anyone else asks, “what’s the information,” you say I just gave it to you, which is just you making a statement.”

The State Department spokesman then declared — in a shameful attempt at evasion and intimidation:

“If you doubt the information that we give out, or the British government gives out, and find solace in what the Russians are putting out…”

The really depressing thing about this exchange is that Price and the State Department clearly made this claim in the sublime confidence that most of the U.S. establishment media would in fact take it on trust without further investigation — and they were probably right. Many U.S. journalists do ask tough questions of those in authority when it comes to domestic politics —but unfortunately they do so more to support one political party or the other, rather than to seek the truth. When it comes to the bipartisan foreign and security policy establishments, all too many journalists take the government’s  statements on trust, especially when they come with the supposed authority — and unverifiability — of “intelligence.”

No minimally conscientious journalist can possibly behave in this fashion. It’s  particularly unprofessional after the blatantly unsupported “information” provided to the public by American and British intelligence over the past 20 years, and the shocking willingness of most of the media (and think tank analysts) to swallow and excrete it.

The road of government fabrications stretches from the lies used to justify the invasion of Iraq (including the “Dodgy Dossier” cooked up by British intelligence), through the totally unsubstantiated allegations about President Trump provided by the “former” British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, to the charge that Russia was paying the Taliban to kill Americans — a charge that U.S. intelligence itself later admitted had no adequate basis in evidence, but which was initially reported without question by most of the media.

Above all, journalists should learn from 20 years of official lying about the situation in Afghanistan, revealed in the reports of the Special Investigator for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and the secret official documents collected by Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post as the “Afghanistan Papers.” Once again, far too few U.S. journalists truly  questioned the official line about what was happening in Afghanistan.

The title “Afghanistan Papers” was intended to recall the 1971 “Pentagon Papers,” leaked by Defense Department official Daniel Ellsberg to reveal the way in which the U.S. government and military had lied about what was happening in Vietnam. 

For a few years during and after the Vietnam War, U.S. establishment journalists did consider it their duty to interrogate the people and institutions making foreign and security policy, and the “information” that they pumped out. Since then, among all too many, this sense of duty has been undermined by a combination of personal advantage, editorial pressure, American patriotism, and an instinctive, unexamined identification of American policy with freedom and democracy in the world. 

But most U.S. journalists covering the Vietnam War (particularly in the early years) toed the government’s line. To blast them out of this complicity required 60,000 American dead, millions of Vietnamese dead, atrocities that forever tarnished the reputation of the U.S. armed forces, dreadful social strife among Americans at home, and Watergate. Let us hope that the U.S. media will not need catastrophes on this scale to recall them to their sense of professional duty. In the meantime, they still have Matt Lee and others to set an example.

State Department spokesman Ned Price (State Dept briefing)|State Department spokesman Ned Price (State Dept briefing)
Analysis | Europe
Where are the US ships on the Gaza aid mission now?
File:US Navy 030530-N-0000X-002 Sea trials of USNS Benavidez (T ...

Where are the US ships on the Gaza aid mission now?

QiOSK

The Army and Navy ships that have left the U.S. for a massive humanitarian aid project in Gaza are still making their way across the Atlantic, with two still at ports in Florida and Virginia. It will likely take until mid-April for the vessels to reach Gaza and begin building a temporary causeway to facilitate the entry of life-saving aid into the strip.

Looking at real-time satellite imagery tracking military vessels, it looks like the USAV Gen. Frank Besson Jr., an Army support vessel that left Fort Eustis, Virginia, on March 10, has been moored and presumably refueling at a port in the Azores, Portugal, since Friday. It is at the half-way point between the U.S. and its final destination of Cyprus (nearly 5,000 nautical miles total). At an average speed of 10 knots, its journey will take nearly two more weeks, depending on weather conditions, once it gets going again.

keep readingShow less
State Dept: No evidence Israel violating laws with US weapons

Photo credit: Anas Mohammed/ Shutterstock

State Dept: No evidence Israel violating laws with US weapons

QiOSK

The State Department said on Monday that it has found no evidence that Israel is violating a recent directive that recipients of U.S. military aid comply with international human rights law.

In February, partly due to pressure over support for Israel’s war on Gaza, the Biden administration issued a national security memo that required any country receiving military aid from Washington while participating in an active armed conflict, to issue “credible and reliable written assurances” that they will use weapons funded by the U.S. in accordance with international law, and that they “the recipient country will facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance and United States Government-supported international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance.”

keep readingShow less
Pressure on Biden for Gaza ceasefire appears to be working

Algeria's Representative to the United Nations Amar Bendjama speaks with U.S. Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, during a vote on a Gaza resolution that demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., March 25, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Pressure on Biden for Gaza ceasefire appears to be working

QiOSK

The United Nations Security Council finally managed to pass a resolution on Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza — the first true indicator that pressure on President Biden to address the war’s calamities is working. The passing of the resolution was followed by spontaneous applause in the Security Council, which is highly unusual. The last time this happened was in 2003 when France’s Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin gave a historic speech against the Iraq war. The applause reflects the immense exasperation with Biden's efforts to keep the war going.

All countries supported the measure with the United States abstaining. Ten countries put forward the measure —Algeria, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Switzerland — that is, all of the non-permanent members, or “elected members,” of the Security Council.

keep readingShow less

Israel-Gaza Crisis

Latest