Under the headline "All the News That's Fit to Buy", Alexander Cockburn listed my father as a journalist "willing to promote the views of the CIA" in The Nation magazine (along with a series of other well regarded journalists from that time). He also referred to my uncle Joe as the "powerful and malevolent columnist". Cockburn is using the recent news that the US Government has been placing articles in the Iraqi newspapers as the platform for a diatribe about journalistic ethics. The column itself is an example of the muddy-headed thinking that he decries. 1) For Cockburn to apply today's standards to activities by journalists more than 50 years ago is bad enough. 2) I actually subscribe to the point of view that American journalists are also Americans and that being a journalist doesn't exempt you from any feeling of patriotism or nationalism. But 3), you wonder whether Cockburn actually ever read any of the stuff he refers to as "promoting the CIA's point of view".
Just a proud son wanting to stand up in defense of my father's reputation as a journalist and political columnist, 30+ years after he died.
Go got 'em Stewart.
Posted by: Nicholas Alsop | December 11, 2005 at 11:17 AM