Diplomat Says ‘The Press Was Set Up’ (Joe Wilson)

[sabra]

http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=20369

Diplomat Says ‘The Press Was Set Up’

Former United States ambassador Joseph Wilson criticized the Bush administration at a campus event yesterday, saying officials deliberately dismissed his intelligence findings and outed his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative.

....

"Bush administration officials engaged in a concerted effort to divert attention from the unassailable fact that those 16 words should have never been in the State of the Union address," Wilson said, referring to Bush's claim in January 2003 that Saddam Hussein attempted to purchase uranium in Africa.

....

Wilson also said Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove, who is also said to be under investigation in the leak, manipulated the press.

"I think the press was set up," Wilson said. "The press was fed lies by Libby."

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. I disagree. The just did what they always do. n/t

[liberalnurse]

6. Maybe this is a smart strategy.....

Democrats have republicans scared right now, the media is hungry for ratings, and MSM is an ESSENTIAL TOOL to get out OUR message. Let's forgive and forget the MSM and welcome them into our plight. I can live with this, take the hit on the chin, if they report our stories. We need them.

Giving the MSM a way to save face could indeed be a key for our success with forwarding the mission to expose the criminals of this administration. Identifying them as victims is a good plan....ally with them. O8)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

8. Oh I'm sure. He's not stupid. I was just stating

what we all know around here. :thumbsup:

[Martin Eden]

12. Forgive? Maybe. Forget? Never.

The phrase "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it" can be applied towards the MSM that allowed itself to be a TOOL of the right wing warmongering kleptocrats responsible for the mess we're in.

We must be ever vigilant when it comes to the MSM and every other institution vital to a functioning democracy.

[liberalnurse]

15. A temporary lapse of memory could

work toward our advantage....it's a strategy wherein by their exposing *bush and company thru their victimization. Their support in their rationale to save face will be by using our long standing talking points and crime family issues. Our voice gets heard and they are the messenger via saving their own hides.

I can live with this. The media is here to stay and is most powerful....if they can turn the corner, we all benefit.

[DearAbby]

17. BULL CHIPS! The media is just as guilty for this fiasco

they stayed in bed with this corupt administration because of money. They are just as guilty for each and every death. Whitewashing the dirt doesn't change the fact that it is dirt.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I think Hardball (Shuster) is going to have a big report on this tonight.

How the WH and Chalibi used the media - planting stories and then confirming their plants - mostly to Judy.

It should be damning (I hope).

[babylonsister]

4. I can't wait to see that! Yes, I heard mention of this big report

yesterday. Hardball has been like a breath of fresh air lately; I hope it continues! :toast:

[liberalnurse]

10. MSM is a business to the core.

If our stories have traction and ratings stay strong, we have their ear. The commentators want their high paying job to continue.....thus the saying, "money talks". it's not about journalism of yesterday......it's all about money.

[AndyTiedye]

13. Businesses That Have Been BOUGHT

If our stories have traction and ratings stay strong, we have their ear. The commentators want their high paying job to continue.....thus the saying, "money talks". it's not about journalism of yesterday......it's all about money.

and the money isn't in ratings for the news division, it is in buying
up more stations, and having a regime in power that will allow even
greater media consolidation. The corporations who own the media are
also using their power to advance their agenda.

The media has ignored a dozen scandals at least, that should have
been as big as Watergate. Plamegate is at least 2060 times worse that
Watergate and even it hasn't got much traction with the media.

[Tellurian]

14. Precisely!

Anyone here thinking the news is not edited by Bush honchos needs a serious reality check. If anything, the red-faced news media is suffering from what is becoming quite obvious to most people. The media is deliberately demonstrating to the American people, they are undeserving of hearing the treasonous truth about their government employees.

The media's allegiance lies with them that controls their paychecks.

[gratuitous]

3. Diplomatically stated by the diplomat

Yes, the press was set up, but several very influential members of the press (okay, I'm not above naming names: Judith Miller, Tim Russert, the entire Fox News cohort, most of CNN) were quite willing to be duped and were remarkably credulous in believing and broadcasting administration lies when objective, contradictory truth was staring them in the face.

Wilson's being very nice, but then, he IS a diplomat.

[karynnj]

9. Which is good - as they may report this because it seemingly

takes them off the hook.

[existentialist]

11. A diplomat!

Do we have any in the state department these days?

[Just Me]

5. Seriously, the ultimate responsibility is on the administration!!!!

The administration is fully and completely responsible for feedings lies to the press, period, exclamation point. No more diversion from or dilution of the fact that, the administration generated the lies and misrepresentations pertaining to both their domestic and foreign policies.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Yeah, just like war criminals were invariably only following orders.

In this case the corporatly owned press was willingly set up.

The problem comes down to corporatism. It distorts the whole system of checks and balances in the newsrooms and on the editorial boards.

We have this same problem with corporatism in the Democratic party as well.

What I notice is that the non-corporate media did a great job providing reliable information before the invasion.

Heck, I'm a single stay at home dad and I knew the odds were excellent that Iraq had little to no WMDs and that there was no threat that justified pre-emptive war and invasion.

This war was corporate driven. Until we as a society diminish the powers of the corporations to serve the goals of society, we are going to see more of the same.

[wordpix]

16. well put, John Q., unfortunately in a capitalist system the corporations

are all-powerful worldwide. What will it take to diminish their powers? Probably something as cataclysmic as oil running out. At that point we will again have decentralized economies and governments and we the people will regain power.

It won't be pretty getting through the transition, though.

[FlemingsGhost]

18. The press eagerly lapped it up. War is great busine$$.

Don't know about the rest of you, but I am not letting them off the hook simply because their cash cow is drying up.