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Reporters Say the Darnedest Things

Welcome, retrospectively, to last Wednesday's "Live Talk" web chat on MSNBC.com. We join the conversation--with Rod Nordland, Baghdad bureau chief of Newsweek--already in progress, just as Mr. Nordland, no doubt without meaning to, is beginning to offer us an extended lesson in the continuing journalistic relevance of people called "editors." None of whom is on hand, alas, to restrain this ostensibly straight and serious war correspondent from stripping off that thin disguise and figuratively flashing himself in front of the entire Internet universe.

Take this Nordland exchange with a chat participant from Rhode Island:

Lincoln, RI: The United States spent billions trying to establish democracy in the foreign culture of South Vietnam. What makes us so optimistic that we can do it in the Middle East where none exist now except Israel?

Nordland: Who's optimistic?

For another instance:

Hellowell, ME: Why does Bush care so much about what happens in Iraq when there are so many poor, sick, poverty-stricken people in the U.S.?

Nordland: Who said he cares?

Of course, it's the American people who are ultimately to blame:

Carthage, NY: We have misjudged and fumbled almost every major decision point in the last 2 years of Iraq. Why aren't people like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Bremmer (the major contributors to these screwed up decisions) being held accountable for their repeated just plain wrong decisions?. . . .

Nordland: Hey, we reelected their boss, that's why.

Wait, though--before some right-wing kook gets it in his head to start an anti-Newsweek letter-writing campaign or something, let the word go forth that Rod Nordland ain't no terrorist sympathizer, nosirree.