Two of the Guardian/Observer’s terrible dilemmas

Posted on February 27, 2016 by fanofootball

20 September 2015

1. Not Printing ”Iraq War Based On Lies” Evidence

”In autumn 2002 the Observer newspaper’s correspondent Ed Vulliamy found confirmation of a terrible truth many of us already suspected. In a world-exclusive, he persuaded Mel Goodman, a former senior CIA official who still had security clearance at the Agency, to go on record that the CIA knew there were no WMD in Iraq. Everything the US and British governments were telling us to justify the coming attack on Iraq were lies.

The Observer failed to print the story. In his book ‘‘Flat Earth News,” Nick Davies recounts that Vulliamy, one of the Observer’s most trusted reporters, submitted the piece another six times in different guises over the next half year. Each time the Observer spiked the story.

2. Their Participation In MSM’s Savaging Of Corbyn

In 2015 The Observer gave Vulliamy a platform in its comment pages to take issue with its editorial the previous week savaging Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour Party leader.

In understandably cautious mode, Vulliamy called the paper’s stance towards Corbyn “churlish”, warning that it had lost the chance to stand apart from the rest of the British media, including the Guardian. All had taken vehemently against the new Labour leader from the very beginning of his candidacy.

”What do these two confrontations between Vulliamy and the Observer – 13 years apart; one public, one not – indicate about the changing status of the liberal-left media?” –

”The reality is that Corbyn poses a very serious challenge to the Red NeoLiberals.”

http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2015-09-20

8 Oct 2013