The New York Times this morning blows some wind into what seems like a pretty routine statement by Secretary of State Colin Powell, running out the news under a three-column wide lead headline asserting that Mr. Powell "assails Israel" and had engaged in "harsh criticism." No one is quoted in the article calling Mr. Powell's statement's "harsh" or describing it as an assault, so it's hard to understand where the Times gets these headline words from.
One clue may come in the little editorial tucked in at the end of the article on Mr. Powell's remarks. "On the other hand, senior officials are aware that leaving the two sides to their own devices is most likely to increase tensions and therefore create regionwide instability," the Times reports. The phrasing "are aware" suggests that what follows is an obvious commonplace truth: "senior officials are aware that the sky is blue." But what the Times says senior officials are "aware" of in this case is in fact a highly debatable point. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that leaving the Arabs and Israelis to their own devices, without a lot of harsh criticism or assaults on Israel by the state secretary -- but with a continued steady flow of American military assistance to the Israelis -- would be likely in the medium to long run to decrease tensions and spread freedom and stability. The Times assumes that "instability" is something to be avoided, but in the short term, what's wrong with destabilizing some of the awful dictatorships that hold sway in the Middle East? That could lead to more stability in the long term. Short-term "stability" is what the State Department and its lackeys at the Times are interested in promoting instead of freedom. In any event, the sentence would be less objectionable if instead of writing "are aware" the Times had written "say." How does the Times know what the "senior officials" are aware of, anyway? Is it inside their brains? Probably at some point in the game one of these senior officials said something to a reporter. So why not say, "said," rather than "are aware"?