Best New York Times Paragraph Ever: Calling David Hume

And that's saying a lot.  Here it is.  Can you find the, uh, problem? 

American officials say there is no hard evidence to link the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to the Mumbai attacks. But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it [When? According to who? A spy agency told you what another spy agency did?  Good!], the officials said, and investigators are focusing on one Lashkar leader they believe is a main liaison with the spy service and a mastermind of the attacks.  [link]

First of all, why are intelligence agencies treated, in American press, as neutral and unbiased sources of information?  How can you construct a story around that and only that?  Because they did so in the past, they did so now?  Where is Hume?  If Pakistan goes after a group, does it mean the group was guilty, or Pakistan uses the presumption of guilt to go after a target, much as China did to Uighurs post-9/11, using the GWOT as a cover... a mask...

Secondly, if this is all you have to go on, with what gall does one title the piece: "Pakistan's Spies Aided Groups Tied to Mumbai Siege"?  Who Tied Them to It?  Why?  On what evidence?  In Whose Interest Is a Narrative?  Do we believe Pakistan's government when it denies it has anything to do with militants in Kashmir?  If so, why?  In whose interest is it to produce that narrative?

They don't even try.  This is why media so often misses the point, and why it  -- i.e., this print medium -- slowly dies.  Because they never ask the questions begging to be answered.

Comments

[jinnzaman]

The media is supposed to miss the point. Its not supposed to provide a true critique of American foreign policy. There are excellent books on this topic, such as Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent.

[Anas]

I concur w/jinnzaman. The media is supposed to miss the point. Its function is to provide a simulacrum of "news" so the public opinion can be adequately shaped. The media produces news for us to consume that reinforces our notion of ourselves. To the extent that the coverage becomes the story, our energy is deflected from the event to the spectacle of the event (to follow Baudrillard).