{"id":52102,"date":"2015-01-05T12:10:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T12:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=52102"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:27:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:27:05","slug":"north-koreasony-story-shows-how-eagerly-u-s-media-still-regurgitate-government-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/01\/north-koreasony-story-shows-how-eagerly-u-s-media-still-regurgitate-government-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea\/Sony Story Shows How Eagerly U.S. Media Still Regurgitate Government Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vox-article-display-b<\/a><\/p>\n

The identity of\u00a0the Sony hackers\u00a0is still unknown<\/a>. President Obama, in a December 19 [2014] press conference, announced<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cWe can confirm that North Korea engaged in this attack.\u201d He\u00a0then vowed:\u00a0\u201cWe will respond.\u00a0. . .\u00a0We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Government\u2019s campaign to blame North Korea actually began two days earlier, when\u00a0The New York Times<\/em> \u2013 as<\/a> usual<\/a> \u2013 corruptly granted anonymity<\/a> to \u201csenior administration officials\u201d to disseminate their inflammatory claims with no accountability. These\u00a0hidden\u00a0\u201cAmerican officials\u201d used the Paper of Record to announce that they \u201chave concluded that North Korea\u00a0was \u2018centrally involved\u2019 in the hacking of Sony Pictures computers.\u201d With virtually no skepticism about the official accusation, reporters David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth deemed the incident a \u201ccyberterrorism attack\u201d and devoted the bulk of the\u00a0article to examining the retaliatory actions the government could take against the North Koreans.<\/p>\n

The same day,\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em> granted anonymity<\/a> to officials in order to print this:<\/p>\n

\"washington<\/a>Other than noting in passing, deep down in the story, that North Korea denied responsibility, not a shred of skepticism was included by Post\u00a0<\/em>reporters\u00a0Drew Harwell and Ellen Nakashima. Like the\u00a0NYT<\/em>, the\u00a0Post<\/em> devoted most of its discussion to the \u201cretaliation\u201d available to the U.S.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0NYT<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Post<\/em> engaged in this stenography in the face of\u00a0numerous security experts loudly noting<\/a>\u00a0how sparse and unconvincing was the available evidence\u00a0against North Korea. Kim Zetter in\u00a0Wired<\/em>\u00a0– literally moments before the NYT<\/em> laundered the accusation via anonymous officials –\u00a0proclaimed<\/a> the evidence of North Korea\u2019s involvement \u201cflimsy.\u201d About the U.S. government\u2019s accusation in the NYT<\/em>, she wisely wrote: \u201cthey have provided no evidence to support this and without knowing even what agency the officials belong to, it\u2019s difficult to know what to make of the claim. And we should point out that intelligence agencies and government officials have jumped to hasty conclusions or misled the public in the past because it was politically expedient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous cyber experts subsequently echoed the same sentiments. Bruce Schneier wrote<\/a>: \u201cI am deeply skeptical of the FBI\u2019s announcement\u00a0on Friday that North Korea was behind last month\u2019s Sony hack. The agency\u2019s evidence is tenuous, and I have a hard time believing it.\u201d The day before Obama\u2019s press conference, long-time expert Marc Rogers detailed<\/a>\u00a0his reasons for viewing the North Korea theory as \u201cunlikely\u201d; after Obama\u2019s\u00a0definitive accusation, he\u00a0comprehensively reviewed<\/a> the disclosed evidence\u00a0and\u00a0was even more assertive: \u201cthere is NOTHING here that directly implicates the North Koreans\u201d (emphasis in original) and \u201cthe evidence is flimsy and speculative at best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet none of this expert skepticism made its way into\u00a0countless\u00a0media accounts of the Sony hack. Time and again, many journalists mindlessly regurgitated the U.S. Government\u2019s accusation against North Korea without a shred of doubt, blindly assuming it to be true,\u00a0and then discussing, often demanding<\/em>, strong retaliation. Coverage of the episode was largely driven by the long-standing, central tenet of the establishment U.S. media: government assertions are to be treated as\u00a0Truth.<\/p>\n

The day after Obama\u2019s press conference, CNN\u2019s Fredricka Whitfeld discussed<\/a> Sony\u2019s decision not to show The Interview<\/em> and wondered:\u00a0\u201chow does this empower or further embolden North Korea\u00a0that, OK, this hacking thing works. Maybe there\u2019s something else up the sleeves of the North Korean government.\u201d In response, her \u201cexpert\u201d guest, the genuinely<\/a> crazed<\/a>\u00a0and discredited<\/a>\u00a0Gordon Chang, demanded: \u201cPresident Obama wisely talks about proportional response, but what we need is an effective response, because what North Korea\u00a0did in this particular case really goes to the core of American democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even worse was an indescribably slavish report on the day of Obama\u2019s press conference from CNN\u2019s Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto. One has to watch the segment<\/a> to appreciate\u00a0the\u00a0full scope of its mindlessness. He not only assumed the accusations true\u00a0but purported to detail \u2013 complete with technical-looking maps and other graphics \u2013 how \u201cthe rogue nation\u201d sent \u201cinvestigators on a worldwide chase,\u201d\u00a0but \u201cstill, the NSA and FBI were able to track the attack back to North Korea and its government.\u201d He explained: \u201cNow that the country behind those damaging keystrokes has\u00a0been identified, the administration is looking at how to respond.\u201d\"cnn-540x380<\/a><\/p>\n

MSNBC announced<\/a>\u00a0North Korea\u2019s culpability on Al Sharpton\u2019s program, where the host breathlessly touted\u00a0NBC<\/em>\u2018s \u201cbreaking news\u201d that the hackers were \u201cacting on orders from North Koreans.\u201d Sharpton\u00a0convened a panel that included the cable\u00a0host Tour\u00e9, who lamented\u00a0that \u201cthat Kim Jong-un suddenly\u00a0has veto power over what goes into American theaters.\u201d He explained that he finds this\u00a0really bad: \u201cI don\u2019t like that. I don\u2019t like negotiating with terrorists. I don\u2019t like giving into terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bloomberg TV called upon<\/a> former Obama Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, who said without any challenge that \u201cthis is not the first time that North Korea has threatened Americans.\u201d Blair demanded that \u201cthe type of response we should make I think should be able to deny the North Koreans the ability to use the Western financial system, telecommunications and system to basically steal money, threaten our systems.\u201d The network\u2019s\u00a0on-air host, Matt Miller, strongly insinuated \u2013 based on absolutely nothing \u2013 that China was an accomplice: \u201cI simply can\u2019t imagine how the North Koreans pull off something like this by themselves. . . . I\u00a0feel like maybe some larger, huge neighbor of North Korean may give them help in this kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"vox2-300x200<\/a><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly,\u00a0the most egregious (and darkly amusing)\u00a0\u201creport\u201d\u00a0came from Vox<\/em>\u2018s supremely error-plagued and government-loyal national security reporter Max Fisher. Writing on the day of Obama\u2019s press conference, he\u00a0not only announced<\/a> that \u201cevidence that North Korea\u00a0was responsible for the massive Sony hack\u00a0is mounting,\u201d but also\u00a0smugly lectured everyone that \u201cNorth Korea\u2019s decision to hack Sony is being widely misconstrued as an expression of either the country\u2019s insanity or of its outrage over\u00a0The Interview<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0The article\u00a0was accompanied by a typically\u00a0patronizing video, narrated by Fisher and set to scary music and photos, and the text of the article\u00a0purported to \u201cexplain\u201d to everyone the real reason North Korea did this.\u00a0As Deadspin<\/em>\u2018s Kevin Draper put it<\/a> yesterday (emphasis in original):<\/p>\n

Here is Vox\u2019s foreign policy guy laying out an\u00a0<\/em>article<\/a>\u00a0titled, \u201cHere\u2019s the real reason North Korea hacked Sony. It has nothing to do with The Interview.\u201d Never mind the tone (and headline) of utter certainty in the face of numerous computer security experts extremely skeptical of the government\u2019s story that North Korea hacked Sony. . . . Vox\u2019s foreign policy guy thinks he can explain the reason the notoriously opaque North Korean regime conducted a hack they may well not have actually conducted!<\/em><\/p>\n

This government-subservient reporting was not universal; there were some noble exceptions. On the day of Obama\u2019s press conference, MSNBC\u2019s Rachel Maddow hosted<\/a>\u00a0Xeni Jardin in a segment which repeatedly questioned the\u00a0evidence of North Korea\u2019s involvement. The network\u2019s Chris Hayes early on did the same<\/a>. The Guardian<\/em> published<\/a> a video interview with a cyber expert casting doubt on the government\u2019s case.\u00a0The Daily Beast<\/em>\u00a0published an article<\/a> by Rogers expressly arguing that \u201call the evidence leads me to believe that the great Sony Pictures hack of 2014 is far more likely to be the work of one disgruntled employee facing a pink slip.\u201d He concluded: \u201cI am no fan of the North Korean regime. However I believe that calling out a foreign nation over a cybercrime of this magnitude should never have been undertaken on such weak evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week,\u00a0the NYT<\/em>\u2018s Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, chided<\/a> the paper\u2019s original article on the Sony hack, noting \u2013 with understatement \u2013 that \u201cthere\u2019s little skepticism in this article.\u201d\u00a0Sullivan\u00a0added that the paper\u2019s\u00a0granting of anonymity to administration officials to make the accusation\u00a0yet again violated the paper\u2019s own supposed policy on anonymity,\u00a0a policy touted by the paper as a redress for\u00a0the\u00a0debacle over its laundering of false claims about Iraqi WMDs from\u00a0anonymous officials.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0– especially after that first\u00a0NYT<\/em> article, and even more so after Obama\u2019s press conference –\u00a0the overwhelming narrative disseminated\u00a0by the U.S. media was clear: North Korea was responsible for the hack, because the government said it was.<\/p>\n

That kind of reflexive\u00a0embrace of government claims is journalistically inexcusable in all cases, for reasons that should be self-evident. But in this case, it\u2019s truly dangerous.<\/p>\n

It was predictable in the extreme that \u2013 even beyond the familiar neocon war-lovers<\/a> \u2013 the accusation against North Korea would be exploited to justify yet more acts of U.S.\u00a0aggression. In one typical example,\u00a0the Boston Globe<\/em> quoted<\/a>\u00a0George Mason University School of Law assistant dean\u00a0Richard Kelsey calling the cyber-attack an \u201cact of war,\u201d one \u201crequiring an aggressive response from the United States.\u201d He added: \u201cThis is a new battlefield, and the North Koreans have just fired the first flare.\u201d The paper\u2019s own writer, Hiawatha Bray, explained\u00a0that \u201chackers allegedly backed by the impoverished, backward nation of North Korea have terrorized one of the world\u2019s richest corporation\u201d and approvingly cited\u00a0Newt Gingrich as saying:\u00a0\u201cWith the Sony collapse America has lost its first cyberwar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days after President Obama\u00a0vowed to retaliate, North Korea\u2019s internet service was repeatedly disrupted. While there is no conclusive evidence of responsibility, North Korea blamed the U.S.<\/a>, while State Department spokesperson Marie Harf smirked as she responded <\/a>to a question about U.S. responsibility: \u201cWe aren\u2019t going to discuss publicly the operational details of possible response options, or comment in any way \u2013 except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"harf-540x305<\/a><\/p>\n

North Korean involvement in the Sony hack is\u00a0possible, but very, very far from established. But most U.S. media discussions treated the accusation\u00a0as fact, predictably resulting in this polling data from CNN<\/a> last week (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

The U.S. public does think that the incidents which led to that decision were acts of terrorism on the part of North Korea and nearly three-quarters of all Americans say that North Korea is a serious threat to the U.S<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0That puts North Korea at the very top of the public\u2019s threat list \u2014 only Iran comes close. . . .\u00a0Three-quarters of the public call for increased economic sanctions against North Korea. Roughly as many say that country is a very serious or moderately serious threat to the U.S.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempting to say that the U.S. media should have learned by now not to uncritically disseminate government claims, particularly when those claims can serve as a\u00a0pretext for U.S. aggression. But to say that, at this point, almost gives them too little credit. It assumes that they want to improve, but just haven\u2019t yet come to understand what they\u2019re doing wrong.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s deeply implausible. At\u00a0this point\u00a0– eleven years after the run-up to the Iraq War\u00a0and\u00a050 years after the Gulf of Tonkin fraud <\/a>–\u00a0any minimally sentient American knows full well that their government lies frequently. Any journalist understands full well\u00a0that assuming government claims to be true, with no evidence, is the primary means by which U.S. media outlets become tools of government propaganda.<\/p>\n

U.S. journalists don\u2019t engage in this behavior because they haven\u2019t yet realized this. To the contrary, they engage in this behavior precisely because they\u00a0do\u00a0realize this: because that is what they aspire to be. If you know how journalistically corrupt it is for large media outlets to uncritically disseminate evidence-free official claims, they know it, too. Calling on them to stop doing that wrongly assumes that they seek to comport with their ostensible mission of serving as watchdogs over power. That\u2019s their brand, not their aspiration or function.<\/p>\n

Many of them\u00a0benefit in all sorts of ways by dutifully performing this role. Others are True Believers: hard-core nationalists and tribalists who see their \u201cjournalism\u201d as a means of nobly advancing the interests of the state and corporate officials whom they admire and serve. At this point, journalists who mindlessly repeat government claims like this are guilty of many things; ignorance of what they are doing is definitely not one of them.<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

Email the author: glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The overwhelming narrative disseminated by the U.S. media was clear: North Korea was responsible for the hack, because the government said it was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}