Propaganda as an 'Exclusive'

UPDATE @ 2:45 pm - Tisdall and the Guardian are taking unanimous criticism on the Guardian's own pages for this story.

Juan Cole has a few comments, too (once you link to it, scroll down a bit) - I suppose I have to link to this silly article by poor Simon Tisdall in of all places, The Guardian, whom someone is using to push a sinister agenda. (...) It really is discouraging that Tisdall didn't report instead on what crazy things the US military spokesmen in Iraq told him. US military spokesmen have been trying to push implausible articles about Shiite Iran supporting Sunni insurgents for a couple of years now, and with virtually the sole exception of the New York Times, no one in the journalistic community has taken these wild charges seriously. But The Guardian?

Oh, then there's this (another Exclusive - but it's been all over the lefty blogs, too): Patrick Cockburn in The Independent -
Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr

I dunno, I wonder if Tisdall is trying to counter-trump the fall out from the Cockburn report.


My earlier post this morning @ 9:18 am:

When I read this story this morning in the Guardian, I nearly spilled my tea all over my laptop - Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq

How can a so-called left-liberal newspaper print this US right wing crap? It's just a c/p job from the DoD. The Guardian is to print media what NPR is to radio: a national propaganda machine.

Right after I read the story, I did my daily check in over at the Tomb - How could one persuade The Guardian to produce a lengthy front-page 'exclusive' based on nothing but propaganda from an unnamed US official, with no proof, and nothing but 'US officials say' all over the place?