How the press failed on Iraq

[babylonsister]

How the press failed on Iraq

A hard look back at the past five years -- with all its death and destruction and missteps -- reveals that the American media has been sleepwalking through the war.
By Greg Mitchell



REUTERS/USAF
The Pentagon restricted an acquiescent media from showing photos of coffins with the remains of U.S. soldiers at Dover Air Force Base.


March 11, 2008 | Stephen Colbert's routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2006 was celebrated or lamented for his pointed barbs at the president while Bush sat just a few feet away. What many may forget, however, is that his critique of the press was just as biting -- and widely resented by many of the journalists in attendance. Some of the same guests had attended a similar dinner two years earlier and roared with laughter when the president aired a goofy video which showed him looking around the White House for those darn missing WMDs (as dozens of American kids were dying in Iraq that month).

One of Colbert's passages could serve as an epitaph for the early coverage of the war. Addressing the reporters in the hall, Colbert, in his faux right-wing blowhard persona, said, "Let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell-check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know -- fiction."

Perhaps, as Colbert had observed when he was still on "The Daily Show," it's all Saddam Hussein's fault -- for not having those weapons of mass destruction. Surely, if we'd found them, public opinion about the media's performance before and after the U.S. invasion in 2003 would have remained at favorable levels far longer. Yet the fact that we did not find WMD did not inspire much of the media to quickly look more deeply, and with more skepticism, at how we got into the war. Nor did it seem to shred the authority most commentators continued to grant the president, Pentagon officials, and others involved in planning and running the war. Not even the disgraceful propaganda campaigns surrounding the capture of Jessica Lynch and the friendly-fire killing of Pat Tillman accomplished that.

As events unfolded in Iraq over many months, and then years, since the 2003 invasion, some of us old-timers -- David Halberstam, to name another -- who had lived through the Vietnam era knew that the longer we stayed, the longer we'd have to stay, to justify the invasion and all the killing and maiming since we'd arrived on the scene. At least this would be the view of those directing the war, calcified editorial writers at The Washington Post and various hosts and guests on cable news channels.

As years passed, reporters in Iraq (and some in Washington) grew more skeptical, but by then it was too late. Editorial pages and TV pundits, meanwhile, lagged far behind the public -- and even behind some conservative Republicans in Congress -- in failing to cry "enough!" Victory, or at least a decisive turning point, was always just around the next IED-blasted corner, in their view.

In early 2007, with the announcement of the "surge" of troops in Iraq, TV commentators punted at the most crucial moment since the invasion of Iraq -- and not a single major newspaper came out against the escalation until after it was announced. They were all sleepwalking into the abyss. Even if the "surge" proved relatively successful, it would guarantee at least several more years of heavy U.S. presence in Iraq, and the deaths of thousands of more Americans.

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http://www.salon.com/books/excerpt/2008/03/11/greg_mitchell/

[Demeter]

1. The War Was Coverage-Free

except for those stagy little Embed pieces--whatever happened to that, anyway?

Partly it was because Bush wouldn't let the Press in, partly it was because whenever Press managed to get in, Bush had the army kill them. Get yourself or your colleagues "accidentally" bombarded or shot up a few times, and eventually the bold ones are either dead or cowed. There's no point in dying without even getting the story out, is there?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. How DId I Fail Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...........

There is simply no way to adequately describe the magnitude of the failure, on so many levels and among so many people who could've really made a difference (but particularly within the press), to critically examine the necessity (let alone the desirability) of invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam's regime, to hold anybody accountable for the lies, misrepresentations, fraud, corruption, and outright abuse and negligence that preceded/accompanied the invasion/occupation, and to end IMHO a blatantly illegal occupation that will likely extend (although hopefully not much longer) beyond Bush's final term in office.