Columbia professor, Todd Gitlin, writing in the current edition of Mother Jones: All governments lie, the muckraker I.F. Stone used to say. They fudge and omit. They bury and muffle inconvenient facts. They do this repeatedly, relentlessly, shamelessly. That’s hardly surprising. Why shouldn’t they seek—as a Marine Corps public affairs officer, Lt. Colonel Richard Long, told a conference on journalism and the Iraq war—to “dominate the information environment”?
If ever there were a time for unbridled journalism, this would be it: terrorist mayhem, war, corporate scandal, ecological crisis, economic upheaval. Public passion and curiosity have been stoked. But the potential investigators have been, to a considerable degree, otherwise occupied.
I.F. Stone digging dirt