"In Iraq, Exporting a bunch of budding Jayson Blairs simply feeds the unhelpful image of Americans as inept and hypocritical puppetmasters" says Jonathan Alter, Newsweek columnist in a very challenging article after the Los Angeles Times revealed that the American government had been planting stories in the Iraqi press that promote the idea of Iraqi democracy and self-rule (see former posting).
What is interesting in Alter's article is the comparison between the cold war and the current war in Iraq: "My problem with all of this is less ethical than practical. If it helped build Iraqi democracy or blunted anti-American propaganda, it might even be worth it (though certainly not at those prices)...
