WELCOME to the debut of “The Truth Is!”, a blog of reporting and commentary that aims to be informative, thoughtful and provocative. At least initially, the blog will have a strong heartland flavor by virtue of the connection of a number of us to Cowles family journalism. I am former editor of the Des Moines Register’s opinion pages. Another contributor, Michael Gartner, is former editor of the paper; he later served as president of NBC News. Another former Register editor who has agreed to contribute, Geneva Overholser, is director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of journalism. Followers of the blog will have access also to the work of Herbert Strentz of Des Moines, a close Register and other newspaper watcher who once headed Drake University’s journalism school. Bill Leonard, a longtime Register editorial writer, will add insights.

“The Truth Is!” will be supervised by my daughter, Marcia Wolff, a communications lawyer for 20 years with Arnold and Porter (Washington, D.C.). Invaluable technical assistance in assembling and maintaining the blog is provided by my grandsons Julian Cranberg, a college first-year, and Daniel Wolff, a high school senior.

If you detect a whiff of nepotism in this operation, so be it. All of it is strictly a labor of love. —Gil Cranberg

Monday, November 25, 2013

Gilbert Cranberg: THE HIDDEN STORY ABOUT IRAN

Critics of the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program are so cocksure they know what’s wrong with the deal they even know what went on in the minds of John Kerry and Barack Obama when they negotiated it. In the view of various talking heads, the Obama administration wanted, more than anything, to distract attention from the mishandling of the Affordable Care Act. In other words, the agreement with Iran gives the administration relief from its health-care critics. Except that it doesn’t.

It would be interesting to know whether the administration took its European Union negotiating partners into its confidence about the so-called Affordable Care Act strategy. Likely not -- it seems far-fetched that the administration would tie the unrelated health care and Iran negotiations together. But when speculating about motive, anything is possible.

That’s the difficulty with attributing motive. It simply is impossible to know a person’s motive without cracking open the individual’s head and examining his lobes. In other words, there is no way to divine motive. You can know what a person means from what he says and does but speculating about motive is just that – speculation. And fruitless. But too much of journalism consists of discussion about motive. Witness the talk about why the administration concluded the negotiations with Iran the way it did.

The agreement the parties hammered out is complex. So let’s hear what disinterested experts think about it. But spare us more talk about what John Kerry and Barack Obama secretly had up their sleeves.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I heard Sen John Cronyn (R Tex) say too the Iran deal was an attempt to distract from the ObamaCare debacle. Like one has anything to do with another. Sickening childlike non stop ranting about anything Obama does and the press takes the bait time and time again.