Open Letter to Jonah Goldberg

Dear Mr. Goldberg,
I cannot understand why you did not devote today's column to tearing the eyes out of the New York Times. Let me explain. I remember when you hollered that CBS had blood on its hands for publishing photographs of U.S. Soldiers abusing Iraqis. Remember? You said "I'm suggesting that CBS should have stopped itself. Now we'll all have to live with the consequences - and some of us will die from them."

Alright, Mr. Goldberg. Point taken (err... not really). You fancy yourself as the media's own watchdog for fingering news publications' mistakes that cost American lives.

Well, today the New York Times admitted that it made a few mistakes of its own in reporting the march to war in Iraq.

... we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge.

In other words, Mr. Goldberg, the NYT reported certain information in support of the war that should not have been reported. Because of this irresponsible reporting, the American people did not have an accurate picture of the intelligence and only 20% or so of our countrymen objected strongly to the war. As a direct result of our going to war, nearly 1,000 American soldiers and civilians and countless Iraqis are dead (to save you the math, Mr. Goldberg, that is one thousand times more Americans than the one American you accuse CBS of killing).

Maybe as self-appointed Regulator of Media War Coverage That Kills Americans, you are so furious about the NYT's behavior that your stinging accusations will take a few days to put into words (today, I see you wrote about how Senator Hollings is not an anti-semite, just a "buffoon" who is... uh... anti-semitic). I understand that you are working through your fury, which is roughly a thousand times greater than your anger about CBS's behavior, and will wait patiently for your column.