Michael Gordon

Michael R. Gordon is the chief military correspondent for the New York Times. With Judith Miller, Gordon wrote the discredited WMD stories, one of which, the Sept. 8, 2002, “aluminum tubes” story, was especially influential since it was used by the Bush Administration to sell its war against Iraq. In a mea culpa after the war, the New York Times blamed two of the Miller-Gordon articles for its overblown and misleaing coverage of Iraq.

After Powell's misleading case for war at the UN, which according to Bob Woodward, was based on evidence the Secretary doubted himself, Gordon wrote: "it will be difficult for skeptics to argue that Washington's case against Iraq is based on groundless suspicions and not intelligence information."

In late 2006, the consisten theme in Gordon's reports was the desirability of an escalation ("troop surge") in Iraq. Appearing on TV, he fully supported the escalation, saying "I think it's worth one last effort for sure to try to get this right, because my personal view is we've never really tried to win."

On February 10, the New York Times again carried a front page story by Gordon; the title this time was "Deadliest Bomb in Iraq is Made by Iran, U.S. Says". While in its mea culpa the New York Times had faulted Gordon for citing "unidentified senior administration officials", it curiously puts Gordon's new story on the frontpage, despite the fact that all the sources cited in it, once again, remain unnamed.

Bibliography

• Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (2006) (co-written with General Bernard E. Trainor)
• The Generals' War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf (1995)
• Gordon's New York Times page

Related Articles

• Craig Unger & John McArthur, New York Times Trumpets Pentagon's Claims Over Iran Sending Bombs to Iraq, Democracy Now, February 13, 2007
• Greg Mitchell, 'NYT' Reporter Who Got Iraqi WMDs Wrong Now Highlights Iran Claims, Editor & Publisher, February 10, 2007
• Alexander Cockburn, Will They Nuke Iran?, Counterpunch, February 10, 2007
• Glen Greenwald, The NY Times returns to pre-Iraq-war "journalism", Salon, February 10, 2007
• Alexander Cockburn, The War and the New York Times, Counterpunch, January 6-7, 2007
• Amy Goodman interviews Michael Gordon, New York Times Chief Military Correspondent Michael Gordon Defends Pre-War Reporting on WMDs, Democracy Now, March 17, 2006
• Alexander Cockburn, New York Times:"Maybe We Did Screw Up...a Little", Counterpunch, May 28, 2004
• Amy Goodman and David Goodman, The Lies of Our Times, Counterpunch, May 27, 2004
• Alexander Cockburn, Judy Miller's War, Counterpunch, August 18, 2003