Today the Washington Post published an article from William Arkin, who along with Dana Priest attempts to expose government corruption and waste in the area of intelligence gathering. Regardless of what’s in the piece, serious questions are raised about the credibility of a news piece written by Arkin, who has a lengthy history of activism. According to the Washington Post’s own Howard Kurtz, May 24, 2002:
[Arkin] insists he’s not a journalist.
In fact, he’s an activist who works for the liberal group Human Rights Watch. He also does work for the Air Force. He’s also an academic, an author, a newspaper columnist and a talking head.
From his home in the mountains of Vermont, William Arkin seems to have mastered one of the great juggling acts of the multimedia age — persuading news organizations, advocacy groups and the Pentagon, through sheer smarts and a bulldog personality, to take him on his own terms.
“Sometimes I even write a story and get all of them mad at me at the same time,” says Arkin, 46. “Any institution is uncomfortable with someone they don’t control.”
Kurtz provides even more background:
Arkin came to Washington and toiled for a series of liberal groups — the Center for Defense Information, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace and the Institute for Policy Studies. The Reagan administration made noises about prosecuting him in the early 1980s after he revealed the location of American nuclear weapons around the world.
“People have a right to know,” Arkin says.
Without question an “activist” can still perform journalism, even top notch journalism, but when the supposedly unbiased Washington Post trumpets a two-years-in-the-making exposé by a man their own paper regards as a left-wing activist as a straight news piece, the integrity of the ideas in the series and the paper that chose to publish them in such a clandestine way suffers. If the Washington Post is going to push such blatantly agenda driven reporting, can’t it at least fess up to it?
Here’s even more on Arkin’s long history of activism from Hugh Hewitt.
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8 Comments
Isn't William Arkin the guy who was the "military analyst" for NBC during the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and made some strange accusations about troops in the US military "raping" and "murduring" people in Iraq and accused American soldiers of being mercenaries? He has no military credentials and is just a plain liar. He was denounced on The No Spin Zone with Bill O'Reilly years ago. You can see the entire clip that was aired back in 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv-s1vfvQTQ
Arkin is a vile and disgraceful parasite who tries to pass himself off as a military analyst, giving all real military analysts a bad name. He should be shunned and anything he puts into print should be disregarded and ignored.
Arkin has shown over the years to be an elitist pinhead,
with no redeeming value.
He spews his vile anti-military diatribes for any leftist media outlet that supports his misinformed,
corrupted view of our "American Freedom Fighters"….
Arkin is a military "anal-yst of the first order..
I hope he wanders into a "watering hole" where Marcus Luttrell (Lone Survivor author) is having a beer…
Arkin is best described as a traitorous glob of poop lube who ought to be thrown out the back door of a C-130 in flight over a lonely stretch of the Indian Ocean.
I agree with you totally. My father is retired from the Air Force and it is despicable that any paper would print this man – period. It's beyond people like him that the military has fought his right to breathe free and spew the vile he spews. A pox on him and the rest of the anti-military, liberal media.
The blame for any and all incidents that occur due to this treasonous act should be placed right at the desk of this evil person.
I hope subscribers to the WaPo who are offended by this ill-advised publication of vital national security information will show their disgust by cancelling their delivery! Believe me, after doing so with the Boston liberal paper, our days no longer begin with the stink of garbage! The only way to hurt them is in their pocketbooks! A MASS CANCELLATION JUST MIGHT GET THEIR ATTENTION!
I agree with you. Is the IC/DoD a perfect system? Hardly. Is there a lot of redundancy and stovepiping? Sure. But there area better ways to deal with this than just blatantly throwing it out into the public just to stir a pot.
If just one person dies from this information getting out on the street, that blood should be on both Arkin's and Priest's hands.
Is WaPo going to do a comparable story on the 8a contracting program for small disadvanteged types and how that redistribution effort has turned into a sacred cow for "professional victims"……those with no business smarts get ten years of "assistance" to build a company in the "US Gov't" realm……they then give it to a son or daughter who can milk the cow for another 10 years…
Does Andrew Breitbart know that Frank Ross is working against him?
Above, Ross warns us that regardless of what’s in the piece, serious questions are raised about the credibility of a news piece written by someone who has a lengthy history of activism.
This instructs us, quite correctly, to disregard anything Breitbart has ever published – including the O'Keefe videos – and articles written by anyone who does not conduct themselves as responsible journalists. For example, intentionally taking ACORN workers or the USDA official out of context is irresponsible and immoral and possibly a violation of law or civil rights.
We are all intelligent enough to know this site is set up to decry left-wing bias — but it cannot be done via propaganda that is just as bad or worse. Ross knows it and says it openly above, but unethically, he does not apply the standard to himself and his bosses that he holds against Mr. Arkin.
The Bible says "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Other Do Unto You" and these right/left media wars are disgusting examples of dueling propaganda barons trying to sucker their own readers, hoping they won't see elsewhere how they mishandle stories.
We know this is all about winning elections, power, money and swaying public opinion using immoral means. Let's take back America by telling Breitbart to apply basic journalistic ethics to his sites. Stop the deception! The full, unedited ACORN videos still indict at least two unethical workers.
Real journalism may not be as sensational as faked stories and cherrypicked narratives, but it's important to follow journalistic ethics so our children aren't taught this immorality and so our Holy Father will not punish our misdeeds. Save yourself here: http://bit.ly/aOZKNQ
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