A fine column by Eric Alterman in the Nation, echoing David Grossman's outrage over Gaza (see bottom of excerpt) and saying that the New York Times refused to run intact Bill Moyers's letter defending himself on Gaza after he was slagged by Bill Kristol. I don't think this would happen on the internet, by the way. Alterman:
Bill Moyers, the Times editors not only allowed [Bill] Kristol to
deliberately distort and decontextualize his remarks; they would not
allow Moyers to defend himself in his own words in response. After the
PBS journalist submitted a letter to the editor, he was told, "We will
not print that 'William Kristol distorts or misrepresents,' and the
editors will not budge." They insisted that the letter be changed for
publication to read, "I take strong exception to William Kristol's
characterization," and they truncated much else.
This is pathetic and ridiculous. If one were to survey, say, 1,000
journalists or even 1,000 New York Times readers and ask them
whether they were more likely to trust the judgment, honesty or bravery
of Bill Moyers or of William Kristol, my guess is that the result would
be a landslide victory in Moyers's favor that would dwarf that of Barack
Obama's over John McCain. I'd even bet the same would be true in a
private survey of Times editors. Yet publisher Arthur Sulzberger
Jr. and editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal–rather than admit their
colossal mistake in giving so prestigious and influential a perch to
Kristol, who was at long last ushered off the page with his next column
just one week later–instead chose to empower his McCarthyite slanders
against one of America's most distinguished patriots and practitioners
of their profession.
Writing in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, the celebrated author
and patriot David Grossman termed the Gaza operation "just one more
way-station on a road paved with fire, violence and hatred," and added,
"our conduct here in this region has, for a long time, been flawed,
immoral and unwise."
(Phil Weiss, thanks to Susie Kneedler)
