Had media done their job, there'd be no Iraq War

[ck4829]

Do you get the feeling the mainstream media are not telling you the whole story?

Let's look at the post 9/11, pre-Iraq invasion period (September 2001 to March 2003). The Bush administration was beating the drum for war with Iraq as a vital part of the war on terrorism. While the administra-tion said they had solid intelligence, others (most of the rest of the world) had doubts. If the mainstream media had been doing their job, we all might have had more doubts and maybe wouldn't have created the disaster that is Iraq today.

What the mainstream media didn't tell us was the key players in the Bush administration who were pushing for the Iraq invasion (Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby and John Bolton) were also members of an organization formed in 1997 called The Project for the New American Century (PNAC, www.newamerican century.org).

The goal of PNAC was to advocate the projection of U.S. power around the world and, as its statement of principles says, "... shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests." It promotes the aggressive, pre-emptive foreign policy Bush has adopted since 9/11. PNAC also has been strongly urging regime change in Iraq since its formation.

Knowing this adds perspective to things like the "cherry picking" of intelligence by the Office of Special Plans, the yellow cake from Africa line in the president's State of the Union speech (the infamous 16 words), and the bogus links between Iraq and al-Qaida. These "facts" would have been more suspect if we knew the key players had long wanted Saddam overthrown.

The Bush administration knew exactly what it was doing - no one could be that incompetent - namely, manipulating the post-9/11 feelings of the American people to push us into supporting the invasion of Iraq.

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[EstimatedProphet]

1. Yes, and if it were doing it's job now, people would know why we are there

So many fall for the Bush administration arguments about why we're in Iraq, and the reason is that the media hasn't told us a thing. If they were doing their jobs we would all know that Bush doesn't want to leave because he wants Iraq unstable, not stable, which allows corporate interests to get what they want.

[ThomWV]

2. Had The Media Done Its Job There'd Be No George Bush

Anyone who knew anything at all about George Bush that went beyond what was being put out about him by the Republican Party would not have voted for him for any office at all. The Media simply passed on what was given to them without any - and I mean any - further investigation. Information was not hard to find, or to confirm from separate sources, nor was it difficult to find reputable sources of information, but the public media did not look.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. And that's why I have to laugh when I hear anyone talk about

"the liberal media". If the media was truly liberal, Bush would never have been (s)elected.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. Ain't that the truth!

:banghead:

[blondeatlast]

10. Indeed--as lazy as they are corrupt.

Imagine if Woodward and Bernstein couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone.

[Atman]

4. What are you talking about? The media DID do their job.

Exactly as BushCo hired them to do. And they've been rewarded handsomely for it.

:shrug:

Who do you think they work for, US?? :rofl:

That's sooooo 1960s!

.

[Zensea]

6. stop blaming the "media"

Blame ourselves and our representatives.

The media is only one facet of the country and do not completely control things.

I for one would not have had any more doubts than I already did if the media had done their job, so why should I buy the reasoning that it is the media's fault when it comes to how other people formed their opinions? Is it the media's fault if people allow the media to spoon feed them or is it the people's fault for lazily allowing themselves to be spoon fed?

There is a strange assumption that people can't think for themselves and are controlled by the media. This assumption carries with it a shirking of responsibility -- that is, if it's the media's fault we have an "out," regarding our own responsibility as a citizenry.

[Writer]

8. Thank you!

It's nice to see some level-headed logic here. I believe the "strange assumption" that you're referring to is Chomsky's fault. He's the one that made us on the left into victims of "the great media" when we've been in control the entire time.

[jerryme1]

13. As long as we are able to vote, We are to blame for Iraq.

[Ron Green]

14. There are some things the media DO completely control,

and those are the significant elements of the "mental environment," the modern literary experience if you will. TV first and foremost, of course, but also corporate radio, Hollywood movies, much of the print media, and product placement everywhere. It's the seamless marketing of news, entertainment and advertising as one content stream, with the only context being "what's the latest" and "what's the most interesting."

I suggest that people born since about 1970 are fundamentally different from older people in their processing of information and their understanding of reality. It's the media's job to create and maintain this difference, and in that they've done their job well.

[Bitwit1234]

7. What people don't understand is this

the media DOES suppress stories negative to the bush administration. In that case they do enable bush. I lived in the Washington DC area and of course I knew exacly what was going on. But when I moved to the midwest the information so readily available was unheard of here. These people have no idea what is going on....I get all the information from the internet...and know what's going on. But can you imagine all the people who don't have the internet who rely on network news. And a lot of these people don't even have cable. Yes the media should be held responsible for not getting the real news out to the people. And the democrats should be held responsible for not NOW doing something about it while they can...

The republicans are scared to death that they democrats will restore the media to being really BALANCED AND FAIR...(see I didn't use Fox's false premise.)

[Nunyabiz]

9. The Media DID do its job

however that job was to cover up the election fraud in the 2000 & 04' coup d'état, cover up the false flag attack on 9/11, cover up the blatantly unconstitutional bills rammed through the Neofascist Congress and cover up all the lies told in order to take the country into an unjust and illegal war of aggression.

Meanwhile even though at least 50% of the country KNOWS they are lying we still do nothing about it.

[G_j]

11. absolutely correct

they knew

[mmonk]

12. If the media did their job, we wouldn't have the most

uninformed population in the western world.