Morning Post: Reality lives edition

Earlier this month, Jay Rosen penned an excellent essay on what happen to the press during the Bush administration’s coup against reality:

Journalists and talking heads: if this month you wish to tell me that realism is back kindly tell me where you think it had gone to.

The Bush administration’s retreat from empiricism has consequences, of course. It means they don’t have to pay attention to reports like this one on Iran’s deteriorating oil industry. The study’s author makes a strong case for playing the waiting game.

The shortfall represents a loss of about $5.5 billion a year, Stern said. In 2004, Iran’s oil profits were 65 percent of the government’s revenues.

“If we look at that shortfall, and failure to rectify leaks in their refineries, that adds up to a loss of about $10 billion to $11 billion a year,” he said. “That is a picture of an industry in collapse.”

If the United States can “hold its breath” for a few years it may find Iran a much more conciliatory country, he said. And that, Stern said, is good reason to belay any instinct to take on Iran militarily.

Meanwhile,
• Speaking of messes, NYT on the importance of disorganization.
• Dems to reign in the borrow-and-spend GOP budgets

• The toll mounts in the war of choice
• Liberated? Report on Afghan Women