As Petraeus Testifies: How Press Helped Bring Him the 'Surge'

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: As Petraeus Testifies: How Press Helped Bring Him the 'Surge'
By Greg Mitchell

(April 08, 2008) -- With Gen. David Petraeus testifying before Congress today, it is worth pointing out that the media, just as in the run-up to the war, is complicit in the current "surge" debacle. Back in early January 2007, I labeled the press "surge protectors," calling the media's performance in the days before President Bush announced the surge their single greatest failing since the war began. More than a year later, with the "surge" at best a mixed success, and few troops brought home so far, that judgment appears even more accurate....

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As this critical turning point in the Iraq war neared, the editorial pages of the largest U.S. newspapers were surprisingly -- even appallingly -- silent on President Bush's likely decision to send thousands of more troops to the country. It followed a long pattern, however, of opinion writers and TV talking heads strongly criticizing the conduct of the war -- without advocating a major change in direction....

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This failure of will came even after liberal bloggers led the way, as a call went forth: Henceforth ye shall purge the "surge" from your vocabularies and laptops and replace it with "escalation" -- with all its echoes of Vietnam and, incidentally, accuracy regarding the situation. Almost no one took them up on their demand. Of course, escalation was the correct term -- who ever heard of a "surge" of any sort that would last more than a year?

...the best The New York Times could do, before the announcement, was an editorial expressing skepticism -- but declaring that Bush deserved "one last opportunity" to get Iraq right. One had to wonder: Why? After Bush made his speech, the Times and many others in the media thundered that Bush had not made the case for the plan.

But by then it was, tragically, too late.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003786843

[ihavenobias]

1. It's true

This could never have happened without help from the press.

Even more frustrating is that the press is STILL failing to ask the relevant questions: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=351431&mesg_id=351431