NYT recognizes reality in Iraq at last

By Richard Baehr

In a remarkable page one story in Sunday's New York Times "News of the Week in Review" section, Dexter Filkins makes it official: the former paper of record acknowledges that things have changed dramatically in Iraq in the last two years, and all for the better.

Times reporter John Burns has been one of the most level headed Iraq War reporters, and Filkins now demonstrates there are at least two reporters at the paper capable of making an honest assessment of the situation.

Regrettably, there is no evidence to date that any of the Times reporters on the campaign trail are capable of producing any such balanced assessments. Times op ed writers are in another category altogether. Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, Nicholas Kristof, Roger Cohen, Bob Herbert, and Frank Rich are all deeply invested in Bush and now McCain/Palin derangement syndrome.