Cursor's Media Patrol - 12/07/05

El-Masri v. Tenet As the ACLU files a lawsuit on behalf of a German man, challenging the CIA's practice of "extraordinary rendition," the New York Times reports that "it would be hard to imagine a more sudden and thorough tarnishing of the Bush administration's credibility than the one taking place [in Europe] right now."

In 'The New Rules of Engagement,' Time's Baghdad bureau chief Michael Ware, who last week challenged assertions made by Bush, reports on the rifts between Iraqi insurgent groups and al-Qaeda in Iraq. And as part of a series on 'Iraqi poster wars,' BAGnewsNotes wonders if the U.S. is 'Behind the Allawi banner?'

As a presidential speech touts progress in rebuilding Iraq, Congress is reportedly showing interest in what the administration did -- and didn't -- do with "prewar analysis that was correct in forecasting the post-Saddam chaos that currently engulfs the country."

Tuesday's double suicide attack at a Baghdad police academy is said to reveal that "insurgents have infiltrated the deepest levels of the Iraqi forces, a danger that has bedeviled the American enterprise from the start."

'Agent Buzz' Defense Tech sifts evidence suggesting that "insurgents in Iraq could very well have chemical weapons. And they may be using them -- on themselves."

Editor & Publisher questions how "misreporting up the chain of command" led to the U.S. military misleading "the media and the families of ten Marines."

A public television producer says that Fox News and "many American newspapers" appear to be following the same rules he once observed in writing supermarket tabloid stories, such as "Rabid Nun Infects Entire Convent."

After FAIR found C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" to be 'failing' at its "No. 1 Goal," Media Matters asked: 'Why is C-SPAN hosting Brent Bozell?' And the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot signs off from PBS, praising Kenneth Tomlinson for "defending the importance of balance and diversity on public television."