Journalist Glenn Greenwald just highlighted an interesting point about the reporting by
The New York Times on the so-called
“Bountygate” story the outlet broke in June of last year about the Russian government trying to pay Taliban-linked fighters to attack U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
“One of the NYT reporters who originally broke the Russia bounty story (originally attributed to unnamed ‘intelligence officials’) say today that it was a CIA claim,” Greenwald
tweeted.
“So media outlets–again–repeated CIA stories with no questioning: congrats to all.”
Indeed,
NYT’s original story made no mention of CIA involvement in the narrative, citing only “officials,” yet
this latest article speaks as though it had been informing its readers of the story’s roots in the
lying, torturing,
drug-running,
warmongering Central Intelligence Agency from the very beginning. The author even writes “The New York Times
first reported last summer the existence of the C.I.A.’s assessment,” with the hyperlink leading to the initial article which made no mention of the CIA. It wasn’t
until later that
The New York Times began reporting that the CIA was looking into the Russian bounties allegations at all.
