I remain terrified of the capacity of the media...

British Novelist John le Carré on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa and His New Novel, "Our Kind of Traitor"

I remain terrified of the capacity of the media, the capacity of spin doctors, here and abroad, particularly the United States media, to perpetuate false lies, perpetuate lies. Mussolini, I think, defined fascism as the moment when you couldn’t put a cigarette paper between political and corporate power. He assumed, when he offered that definition, that media power was already his. But I worry terribly that the absence of serious critical argument is going to produce a new kind of fanaticism, the new simplicities that are as dangerous as the ones which caused us to march against Iraq and as misunderstood.

Journalism

These two articles appears on Yahoo's front page today:

French minister: Saudis warn of new terror and
American visits Iran blast site under freedom deal

It is interesting to note that the third paragraph of the article on Iran says:

It can easily score political points at home for the ruling clerics at a time when international sanctions are hurting Iran's economy.

But there is no mention in the article on Al Queda's French threat that this may be nothing more that the French government, facing crippling strikes (e.g story), trying to "score political points" by appealing to French fear and patriotism.

If you connect the dots in story about France then you are labeled as a "conspiracy theorist", but if you do that in story about Iran, you are journalist! Different strokes for different folks :)