Games People Play

7/10/03 | William McKinley

[William McKinley]

Games People Play

By William McKinley

"If I promise you the Moon and the Stars, Would you believe it?

Games people play in the middle of the night" - Alan Parsons Project, "Games People Play"

The recent fiasco experienced by the New York Times over the creative writing exploits of Jayson Blair should have served as a warning to journalists to be careful over the information they publish. A news outfit depends upon its credibility, just as surely as our society depends upon news reporting in order for people to make judgments over their own governance. Yet it appears that some lessons are not easily learned, as was recently demonstrated by some events which are to this moment still unfolding.

Doug Thompson has been involved in journalism for decades. According to his biography, he has won awards for his reporting and his commentary, and he has worked as Press Secretary for a few members of Congress. He runs a news and commentary webzine called Capitol Hill Blue. Chris Betros is the editor of Japan Today, an English Internet news publication based in Tokyo. Both men find themselves in an uncomfortable position for a journalist, where the story becomes partly about them. I can best describe William Rivers Pitt as a propagandist and a left wing agitator. On July 8th, a sequence of events commenced involving all three that demonstrates that in the aftermath of Jayson Blair, the field of journalism still has not immunized itself from the ministrations of charlatans.

"Things that they say, Honor Brite..."

On July 8th, Capitol Hill Blue published a story titled "White House Admits Bush Lied About Iraqi Nukes". The bold headline was backed by an equally assertive lead-in, which stated "After weeks of denial, the White House Monday finally admitted President Bush lied in his January State of the Union Address when he claimed Iraq had sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa." This assertion went far beyond what other news organizations were reporting, which was that the Bush administration had admitted that the claim made in the State of the Union Address was based on information the President later found to be unreliable. There were other eye-raising details in the story, however.

The article quoted a "CIA advisor" named Terrance J. Wilkinson, claiming he had been present at two White House briefings attended by the President. "The report had already been discredited," the story quoted Wilkinson as stating. "This point was clearly made when the president was in the room during at least two of the briefings" said Wilkinson, who claimed Bush responded in anger. "He said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," the Capitol Hill Blue story continued Wilkinson's quote. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country." Wilkinson claimed to have written "numerous memos" questioning the use of "intelligence information that we knew to be from dubious sources." While American troops continue to search Iraq for a smoking gun regarding weapons of mass destruction, these allegations, if true, would be the smoking gun the left wing of American politics has been searching for in their quest to discredit the Bush administration.

On Free Republic, a website where conservatives dissect and debate the news, some people (including this author) started to question the story. The White House admitted Bush lied? Where could such an admission be found? And who is Terrance J. Wilkinson? Searches using various Internet tools such as Google were coming up empty. Doug Thompson joined in the discussion to defend his work and his publication. "The use of the word 'lied' has also sparked some controversy on the Capitol Hill Blue forum as well. It was my decision to use the word. Wilkinson did not accuse the President of lying. I did, based on information from other sources (who would not go on the record) that Bush was told outright that the information had been discredited before the State of the Union address but that he chose to use it anyway. To me that was a lie and I chose to use it in the headline and the lead of the story." Thompson admitted that he chose such a strong accusation because "I'm mad. Bush didn't have to use a discredited claim to justify the war with Iraq." However, Thompson admitted, "The headline is technically incorrect because the White House made no such admission. I have edited the headline and the lead of the story to reflect that." Thompson republished the article with the word 'lied' changed to 'wrong' in the headline, and the lead-in changed similarly. But what about Terrance J. Wilkinson? Thompson stood by his man. "I've known Terry Wilkinson for 20+ years and his decision to go public was a painful one that I'm sure will bring recriminations."

"Ain't gonna spend the rest of my life, Quietly fading away..."

The genie was out of the bottle at this point. On July 9th, Japan Today published the same exact story as Capitol Hill Blue, verbatim, crediting the story to TruthOut. Within hours, the Google News compilation service had it as the head story in its grouping of the news reports about the White House admission that the Niger intelligence was unreliable. I contacted Japan Today, and in a series of emails with Mr. Betros, I informed him that Capitol Hill Blue had backed off of some of the assertions in the article, and further that there was reason to doubt the existence of the Mr. Wilkinson quoted in the story. This information was news to Mr. Betros, as he was completely unaware of Thompson and of Capitol Hill Blue. He informed me that Japan Today had obtained the story from TruthOut, to which his organization subscribes, and which had presented the story as their own. Betros acted quickly to verify what I was telling him, apparently realizing that the credibility of his news organization could be impacted.

Meanwhile, Thompson was starting to have some doubts of his own. Responding to criticism from readers, he decided to pass along some questions to Wilkinson to start the process of substantiating some of the claims made. To his horror, he started to realize that he had been had. "I tried calling Terry's phone number. I got a recorded message from a wireless phone provider saying the number was no longer in service. I tried a second phone number I had for him. Same result" Thompson related. After checking with some other sources within the administration, the CIA, and Capitol Hill, according to Thompson, he realized "that someone has been running a con on me for 20 some years and I fell for it like a little old lady in a pigeon drop scheme." He published a complete retraction and apology, and contacted a lawyer to assist him in minimizing the damage. For several years, Thompson said, he had been using Wilkinson as an unnamed source in his reporting, sometimes as a single source: "over time, I came to depend on him as a source without additional backup."

"Things that they say, Just don't make it right..."

He was not the only one working to undo things. Betros contacted Thompson, and decided to pull from their publication the story. "We had [been deceived] too," said Betros, "because we subscribe to truthout.org and publish their stuff from time to time and being over here in Japan, we don't have the resources to check the veracity of articles we take from overseas... I will however think twice before using any more truthout.org stories after today." He stated that Japan Today would be publishing Thompson's mea culpa.

Despite all the efforts, as of midday July 10th, Google News searches were still turning up the original story's headline and lead in.

How The Google News Search Appeared at 11:00 EDT, July 9

White House admits Bush lied about Iraqi nukes
Japan Today, Japan - 21 hours ago
WASHINGTON — After weeks of denial, the White House Monday finally admitted President
George Bush lied in his January State of the Union Address when he ...
       White House admits mistake about Iraq's nukes - Indian Express
       US denies Blair's claims about Saddam's nukes - Independent Online
       Of Mice and (Con) Men - Democratic Underground

The story also managed to get discussed on CNN. As CNS News noted, Aaron Brown mentioned the news story circulating "that there was at some point a conversation between the president and a CIA consultant where the consultant directly told the president that this African uranium deal was bogus." David Ensor told Brown the story sounded suspect to him, but millions of ears had the seed planted in their heads by the mention. [As an addendum, the Media Research Center points out that Brown's comments were made over four hours after Thompson's retraction.] TruthOut was undoubtedly pleased.

"Games people play in the middle of the night..."

Meanwhile, TruthOut was apparently working to cover some tracks. They removed a copy of the story they had posted on their website, putting in its place at the exact same URL a copy of a Washington Post article. As was captured over at Free Republic, however, their search engine's cache provided evidence that they did have the story up at one time. Later, they published a copy of Thompson's retraction, with the following editorial note provided by William Rivers Pitt:

Yesterday, truthout's lead story carried an article by Capitol Hill Blue that quoted a 'CIA insider.' This insider, a Terrance J. Wilkinson, was reportedly present at two briefings when Bush was informed of, and then dismissed, evidence that his Iraq WMD claims were false. Capitol Hill Blue has run a retraction of that story, which we have printed below. According to Doug Thompson, author of the original story, Terrance J. Wilkinson does not exist, and Thompson has been getting scammed for over 20 years. Something about this story is decidedly strange, but in light of Thompson's retraction, we would be remiss not to run it. I am running down my contacts at CIA and Capitol Hill Blue to find out how all of this took place. We will let you know when we know. - wrp

On TruthOut, Pitt made no mention of how they came to possess the Capitol Hill Blue article to begin with, or why they had sold it to Japan Today without attribution. However, he was not silent on the issue, stating "Japan Today got it from us. I guess they 'stole' it, too since they never asked permission." Something clearly is "decidedly strange" about this story, especially considering that it deals with the run-up to the war with Iraq and since Pitt co-authored a book with former weapons inspector Scott Ritter titled War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know. Ritter was vocal throughout the media attempting to discredit the Bush administration's Iraq positions in the run up to the war.

The fact that Thompson allowed himself to be used to spread false propaganda regarding the administration is somewhat surprising. Earlier this year, Thompson had broken a story prior to the commencement of hostilities in Iraq that he claimed detailed plans by Democrats for undermining the administration after the war:

"Writers and broadcasters friendly to the Democratic cause have already been provided talking points... Capitol Hill Blue obtained a copy of the talking points... The talking points outline a strategy to raise public doubts of the President's real intentions, including: ...--Claiming the Bush administration has "manufactured" evidence against Saddam Hussein and used that evidence to encourage Britain and other allies to join the American fight against Iraq;"

"If I'm telling you the truth right now, Do you believe it..."

So who is Terrance J. Wilkinson, and does he even exist? Doug Thompson claims that the person who identified himself as Wilkinson approached him first when he worked for former Congressman Manuel Lujan of New Mexico. "He seemed to know a lot about the nuclear labs in New Mexico and said he had conducted 'security profiles' for both Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs", Thompson related. Congressman Lujan served on the committee charged with oversight of both labs, and according to Thompson, Wilkinson offered to be involved in assisting them in briefings. "He said he had helped other Republican members of Congress I called some friends in other GOP offices and they said yes, they knew Terry Wilkinson. 'You can trust him, he's one of the good guys,' one chief of staff told me." said Thompson.

If Thompson's claims are accurate, then this paints some disturbing pictures. Which members of Congress were using Wilkinson, and for what purpose? To what information was this person gaining access, and what information was he injecting into the process along the way? At this point, Thompson has become mum, declining to assist me further in finding out more about the identity of Wilkinson, at the advice of his attorney.

The lessons here are plentiful. The news is full of stories, every day, which contain unnamed sources. People gobble up such details at face value, assuming that reporters have exercised due diligence. As Mr. Betros admitted, however, many publications do not have the resources to perform such verifications, and as the Jayson Blair situation demonstrated, those that do can sometimes fail to do so adequately. Publishers are also human, and despite their claims of impartiality bias can impact decisions, as clearly occurred with Mr. Thompson. I wonder how much of Mr. Thompson's anger at the Bush administration was formed by incorrect information being funneled to him by people like the vaporous Mr. Wilkinson. I do not wonder, however, if publication decisions are made, every day, based on information being peddled actively by propagandists with agendas. Clearly, this is a game some people play. We have to take it, or leave it.

William McKinley is a pseudonym. He can be found blogging away on the Internet every day.

[PhiKapMom]

Using the Bush-Cheney '04 ping list because you all need to read this and help out with the research.

This whole deal smells and now we have to wonder how many anonymous sources quoting White House or other Administration sources are bogus. How many meetings they are discussing with quotes from the participants have been bogus?

[randog]

Dude, you rock! I've been e-mailing your links to all my liberal friends that have been hyperventilating about this "Bush Lied" lie. They're awfully quiet now.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Bumpity bump! Good point.

[BOBTHENAILER]

This whole deal smells and now we have to wonder how many anonymous sources quoting White House or other Administration sources are bogus. How many meetings they are discussing with quotes from the participants have been bogus?

Very good point, and one we have talked about on this forum for a long time.

Recent events have convinced me that way over 60-70% of those "unnamed senior officials" are the author's vivid imagination of what they'd LIKE to hear, but can't.

[PhiKapMom]

Or they are planted sources from the Clintons! I remember back in 2000, I had access to a talking point paper from the DNC (Hillary) and then that very talking point ended up front page on the NY Times! Someone sent it to me and told me to watch -- the NY Times would run with it! And they did.

I used to think the media was just plain lazy -- now I believe they are totally corrupt!

[MJY1288]

Excellent job William McKinley, The situation was explained very clear and precise

Thanks a million

[BOBTHENAILER]

Read this for a small example of the Power of FreeRepublic

[rwfok]

I've been following this since the first thread. Excellent job William. Thanks for the ping PhiKapMom.

[BOBTHENAILER]

I used to think the media was just plain lazy -- now I believe they are totally corrupt!

With a few rare exceptions, I totally agree. Without Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the like, the propaganda would be almost complete. As we see the media shown to be the liars and RAT sycophants that they are, we will also see a commensurate decline in RAT popularity and acceptance.

Their demise is coming faster than they think.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Excellent summation! I have a couple of fairly-well placed relatives at the Pentagon who are, as we speak, looking for everything and anything about this Wilkinson character, but so far - nothing...

I am, to put it bluntly, beginning to doubt his existance, and so are they...

Great job, man...

[azGOPgal]

Thanks for the ping to a thread that we should all be reading PhiKapMom.

William McKinley, good job on researching and bringing this to the attention of FReepers. It's pretty amazing when you think about what journalists will do to miscontrew things in order to make their enemy appear to be in the wrong. This will definitely be bookmarked.

Maigrey, I haven't talked to you in forever, but I thought you'd be interested in reading this. I hope to chat with you soon.

[onyx]

You've done such a fabulous job and, here I'm worn-out from all of it! :-)

I hope all of the "alphabet" agencies have hold of this, including, but not limited to, the RNC and the FBI.

Serious stuff, trying to bring-down POTUS by smearing him with a phantom source.

Thanks for the pings...I hope I mentioned all pingers!

[nana4bush]

On Free Republic, a website where conservatives dissect and debate the news...

You are certainly a master of dissection. This has been a amazing specimen of deception you have presented to us. Thank you for your service.

[Nick Danger]

Recent events have convinced me that way over 60-70% of those "unnamed senior officials" are the author's vivid imagination

Some undoubtedly are. But I'll bet many exist... and are bogus attention-seekers... like Greg Packer, like I suspect Mr. Wilkinson is. The more I think about this, the more I suspect that practically every reporter with a halfway famous byline has one or more of these people in his Rolodex.

We have had at least five of these people right here on FR... people who claimed to be something they were not, and led people on for months before they were exposed. In some cases we even had freepers falling on their swords to defend these folks, even after it was obvious that we'd all been had. That was with near-daily interaction with these impostors... imagine how long one of them could keep the game going with only sporadic interaction... once every couple months or so.

Wouldn't it be cool thing to see something you had said appearing in a William Safire column? It would be if you were a certain kind of screwball. The world might be full of those screwballs. If we have them here, it's hard to believe that some of them haven't wormed their way into the confidence of many, many newspaper reporters.

[lepton]

Not that it directly addresses the fraudulent story, but it does deal with the whole issue of why the Niger Uranium story was accepted: NRO - Uranium-Gate? Some context.

Primarily it is because Niger had previously supplied Iraq and Libya: Former president Seyni Kountche said in 1981 that his country would sell uranium "even to the devil," though "Prime Minister Hama Hamadou stated a few months ago that when Saddam sought to buy uranium in the 1980s, former president Seyni Kountche sent him packing. "

[William McKinley]

Check out the home page of CBS News.

Of course, they did not give any way of telling if they are picking up on this false story or not- their sources are completely unnamed. But even if they are different, their story does not support the headline.

Liberals are nothing if not consistent.

[bvw]

DITHF and CGEB ... who are the other three?

[lepton]

CGEB?

[RonDog]

See also THIS THREAD.

[bvw]

classy green eyed blonde, iirc.