Does the Atlanta Journal Constitution ever have any, you know, news in it's newspaper? The reason I ask is that the AJC has had exactly one piece of any kind on the ongoing United Nations Oil for Food scandal, the ironically titled William Safire column Cover-up of oil-for-food scandal continues. Now, this story has been treated as serious news by even the New York Times (if only to present Kofi Annan's defense of the U.N.), but so far nothing in the AJC. The possible answer to the question of why the AJC does not either think it has to cover the story could be that they see the scandal as some kind of conservative conspiracy to discredit the U.N.
But I have an alternate theory - The AJC has so invested itself in their opinion columns of turning Iraq over to the U.N., that they cannot present any information that would discredit their faith in the altruistic intentions of the United Nations.
For example, how about this opinion column, which ran in the "Our Opinion" section of the editorial page, titled Let U.N. take lead in reshaping Iraq. In the column, the AJC editorial board blames the Bush Administration for American reluctance about the U.N.:
There's admittedly a lot of skepticism about the United Nations in this country, much of it fed by the Bush administration's own past rhetoric.Yeah, like that whole part where President Bush gave that speech in front of the U.N. that resulted in Security Council Resolution 1441. That resolution, if you remember, was the one that said Saddam Hussein would face "serious consequences" if he did not immediately and fully comply with previous U.N. resolutions. I mean, good Lord, President Bush said he would go to the U.N. and get a resolution, and he did. It's the mark of a truly reprehensible politician who actually does what he says. I mean, if you can't trust a politician to not do what he says he is going to do, then really, how is that going to make the rest of the politicians look bad.
But I digress.
So it's pretty clear to me that, after licking the boots of the U.N. for so long, that the AJC will probably not offer any news coverage of this any time soon. I plan on writing a letter to the public editor asking about this, but I don't expect a response. We'll see.
Update: Well, no response from the AJC, as expected. It seems, though, I am not the only one who is frustrated by lack of response from local newspapers on covering the Oil for Food Scandal. chaitealatte(original link from Instapundit) is going me one better by writing a letter a day to the public editor of her newspaper (though I don't know which one), asking them questions like:
To whom it may concern: Great article on Friends in the Arts and entertainment section. Very cutting edge. Now how about (Oil for food scandal).........
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