How the media blew the Iraq story

[Sticky]

April 21, 2004

It is part of the media's job to cover the White House. Yet there must be a difference between reporting on what the president says and repeating what the president says.

As a result of the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the rise in American casualties and the attention of the 9/11 Commission, the media today are looking skeptically at presidential statements and policies on WMD.

But that is a relatively recent trend. In the fall of 2002 and the spring of 2003, the media slavishly repeated the administration's assertion that a core objective of the war on terror was to prevent Iraqi WMD from falling into the hands of terrorists. While that may have been a common fear, no terrorist organization had committed an act of true "mass" destruction using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons - much less one involving materiel gained from Saddam Hussein.

-snip-

The coverage not only disseminated the administration's logic, but because it didn't offer equally prominent alternative perspectives, it also validated it. When reporters did take on the administration, their stories were often buried by their editors.
more...

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpmoe213766678apr21,0,495497.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. Thay didn't blow anything, they were accomplices.

...

[bemildred]

3. Right. The media's job is to sell the current propaganda.

They did a great job. This is ass-covering because the
crusade the media sold turned out to be a disaster.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. I've noticed that the major media will run with a story...............

when it leaks into the mainstream because they have to. They also let it die a quick death. What seems to be missing is the curiosity and in depth follow-up that used to be the norm with investigative reporting.

Actually there is not any investigative reporting going on anymore. Has that been an evolutionary change or one that has come down from top management? My guess is top management most likely due to political and liability (monetary) reasons.

[Sticky]

5. CNN

I used to listen to CNN all the time and never missed Crossfire. But it got to be too stressful last year hearing the propaganda and knowing the truth. I feel a lot better now that I've banished the station from my cable bundle.

I never thought I's say this but I miss that lovable megalomaniac Ted Turner! hehe

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. So right! God, I wish he would return.

[samsingh]

4. the media was sleeping with bush

say willing accomplices to murder.