Nicholas Schmidle
Who–and What–Are Behind the “Official History” of the Bin Laden Raid? -- By Russ Baker
Original Investigation: http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/08/17/raidbinladen/
Who–and What–Are Behind the “Official History” of the Bin Laden Raid?
By Russ Baker on Aug 17, 2011
The establishment media just keep getting worse. They’re further and further from good, tough investigative journalism, and more prone to be pawns in complicated games that affect the public interest in untold ways. A significant recent example is The New Yorker’s vaunted August 8 exclusive on the vanquishing of Osama bin Laden.
The piece, trumpeted as the most detailed account to date of the May 1 raid in Abbottabad Pakistan, was an instant hit. “Got the chills half dozen times reading @NewYorker killing bin Laden tick tock…exquisite journalism,” tweeted the digital director of the PBS show Frontline. The author, freelancer Nicholas Schmidle, was quickly featured on the Charlie Rose show, an influential determiner of “chattering class” opinion. Other news outlets rushed to praise the story as “exhaustive,” “utterly compelling,” and on and on.