810 Duration: 3.6 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
So why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself Knight Ridder.
811 Duration: 6.74 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
My name is Jonathan Landay. I'm a senior correspondent for Knight-Ridder -- cover National Security Affairs.
812 Duration: 10.44 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
Okay, and how many newspapers does Knight-Ridder -- ? [Thirty-one.] Okay -- Hold on. When I'm going to be asking questions, if you could answer in a full sentence as if -- Yeah.
813 Duration: 15.38 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
We have thirty-one newspapers, but also we own -- co-own the Knight-Ridder Tribune news service that I think feeds something like 350 other newspapers around the world. So the stories get quite wide distribution.
814 Duration: 10.58 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
Okay, great. And why don't you go ahead and tell me -- When you come in each day, where do you get your news from? [Where do I get--?]
815 Duration: 14.98 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
I'm following -- developing sources and developing leads off stuff that I've been reporting now for 18 months on the questionable intelligence that was used by the administration to make its case for the war in Iraq.
816 Duration: 18.72 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
And so I'll follow developments on it that are breaking in ordinary news developments. But most of what I've been doing for the past 18 months -- except for a three months -- three-to-four month break in the middle where I actually went to Iraq and covered the war -- has been devoted to covering the intel story.
817 Duration: 7.17 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
Okay -- Do you read the New York Times or Washington Post to see what other news -- ? [Sure --]
818 Duration: 7.51 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
I mean, I like to know what else other people are reporting, but on this story -- pretty much we're alone.
820 Duration: 9.71 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
My real only concern is to make sure that we're covering -- we've covered stuff that other people aren't covering or reporting on -- that we stay ahead.
821 Duration: 8.58 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
Okay, great. And -- How have you seen the White House influence the news coverage leading up to the war in Iraq?
822 Duration: 14.01 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
Well, I have to put the caveat on that I was only here until January of '03. And then I went to Kurdistan -- Northern Iraq. But up to that point my impression was that --
823 Duration: 14.55 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
Virtually all major media echoed what the White House was saying about Iraq and its alleged weapons of mass destruction program, its ties to terrorists.
824 Duration: 9.94 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
You'll even hear a lot of mass media back then echoing allegations that Saddam was involved in 9/11.
826 Duration: 1.6 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
And not just echoing them, but reporting them.
828 Duration: 18.45 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
This wasn't a specific charge that was made by the White House, but if you look at the way they were dealing with the -- that question -- there certainly were enough people, very senior in the administration, who were very happy to imply that without actually saying it.
829 Duration: 18.39 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
And they were helped because: A) there was media out there reporting it, and B) there were their allies -- talking heads here in Washington -- who were very much in favor of a pre-emptive attack on Iraq -- who were also echoing these allegations -- Some of whom still are.
830 Duration: 13.31 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
And they were getting on television on a regular basis. They were getting on radio. They were making speeches. They were writing op-ed articles. And nobody was questioning what they were saying, and I think there were a number of reasons why.
831 Duration: 12.58 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
First of all, everybody who covered this issue for any length of time -- who was involved in this issue for any length of time -- everybody believed that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction.
832 Duration: 4.2 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
The terrorism thing, I would -- I would put to the side.
833 Duration: 13.41 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
But as far as WMD went, I think, that it was almost universally assumed -- assumed -- that he had concealed weapons that the UN inspectors hadn't found.
834 Duration: 9.28 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
And I have to count myself in among that group until I began and my partners began reporting the stories that we began reporting in September of '02
836 Duration: 8.38 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
Quoting people within the government who were themselves questioning what the administration was saying about the intelligence that the United States had.
837 Duration: 17.65 seconds
Echo Chamber Project:
Okay, great. Did you see a pattern of -- when reporters were misreporting items, they weren't being corrected -- if it was suiting their agenda. And if it wasn't suiting their agenda -- Was there a certain amount of flack that was given?
838 Duration: 16.38 seconds
Jonathan Landay:
Well, you're using the word "agenda" as a kind of -- You're using it in a very broad sense in that you're basically implying that most reporters had agendas. I don't believe that. I do believe that there were some major news organizations that had an agenda --
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