A previous American Thinker post reported on the distortions that New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino included in her report of a  Paris meeting on the topic of nuclear energy. She depicted America as selfishly insisting that America wants "nuclear energy plants for itself"  and that it "wants to deny Iran the right to develop its own nuclear power."

 

Both assertions are false: there are numerous nations which have nuclear power plants which rate nary a concern in America. The Bush ddministration merely wants to restrict Iran's quest for nuclear weapons not nuclear power as an energy source. Sciolini  and the New York Times goes to bat for Iran — a known terrorist state — against their own nation.

 

This follows a pattern for Sciolini and for various New York Times reporters over the years. In an earlier interview she seemed to agree with Iranians who consider America the "Great Satan" (her quote, "Well, America is the Great Satan.")

 

Ms. Sciolini has spent years in Iran and wrote a book, Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran about the nation. One can hope she has not gone native (i.e., adopt the propaganda of the nations they are reporting from as truth) in the way that other Times reporters have over the years.

 

The New York Times has a sorry history of reporters who are willingly duped by dictatorial regimes. For instance, Walter Duranty was a New York Times reporter known as Stalin's journalist for his Pollyannaish view of Stalin state terrorism. There have been a bevy of others in the New York Times history who have gone over to the dark side, as well .

 

Then again, Ms. Sciolini may just be reaffirming her bias against George Bush and his supporters, for she also compared pro—Bush former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar to dictator Francis Franco. Regarding Spain, she incorrectly reported that Spain refused to send a single soldier there. This was a very misleading statement for, under Aznar, Spain did send troops to help overthrow Saddam Hussein. It was only the new Prime Minister who pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq. 

 

She  also tried to garner favor among the Palestinians when she called mass murderer Yasser Arafat a "cult hero, the guerrilla fighter and Nobel prize winner who has symbolized the Palestinian struggle for statehood for four decades."  Reporters manipulating the truth to win  the favor of anti—American foreign leaders (as Eason Jordan and others have done) not only betray their profession but also betray their nation. They become un—indicted co—conspirators in helping dictatorial regimes harm their own people.

 

Ed Lasky   3 26 05