Imams for Hire

[realFedUp]

http://www.therevealer.org/archives/main_story_002327.php

Imams for Hire
Jeff Sharlet

02 January 2006

"Insight and Influence.
Anywhere. Anytime."

NYT reports that the Lincoln Group, a U.S. contractor recently exposed as subverting the Iraqi press by placing propaganda articles, has also been making quiet payments to Sunni clerics in Iraq. The Times article, by David S. Cloud and Jeff Gerth, is a clumsy effort, unsure of where to point readers' indignation. After all, is it a bad thing if the U.S. hires Sunni clerics to advise the military on better relations?

Yes, actually, if you believe in freedom of religion. The problem seems to be that payments weren't public, although the article leaves that unclear. It's easy to understand why -- an imam accepting American cash would likely become a target -- but where does that leave Iraqis who looked to these clerics for counsel, unaware of their financial ties? The problem with the Times story is that it doesn't tell us. They didn't bother to talk to any Iraqis.

More revealing is the paper's exposure, at the end of the story, of American Enterprise think tanker Michael Rubin. When the Lincoln story first broke last month, the Times quoted Rubin as an outside observer, defending Lincoln. This month, we learn that Rubin also rides the Lincoln gravy train. How much did he get? We don't know -- for once, Rubin doesn't feel like talking.

That's not the Times' fault, but their failure to note Rubin's ideological perspective is. Critics have complained with good reasoning about the sometimes-reductionist labeling of talking heads as "conservative" or "liberal." The Times has responded not with needed nuances, but by limiting use of the terms to extreme or self-declared cases. This has resulted in the creation of a vast "middle" of implicitly reasonable discourse.

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