In Wake of McClellan Charges: A Revealing Look Back at How the Press Bought the War

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: In Wake of McClellan Charges: A Revealing Look Back at How the Press Bought the War
By Greg Mitchell
Published: May 29, 2008

....(I)t's worth looking back at what I called, last year, the "most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq." The program appeared on April 25, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called "Buying the War," which marked the return of "Bill Moyers Journal." I included my review in my new book "So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq." An excerpt is published below.

*From "So Wrong for So Long":

While much of the evidence of the media's role as cheerleaders for the war presented here is not new, it is skillfully assembled, with many fresh quotes from interviews (with the likes of Tim Russert and Walter Pincus) along with numerous embarrassing examples of past statements by journalists and pundits that proved grossly misleading or wrong. Several prominent media figures, prodded by Moyers, admit the media failed miserably, though few take personal responsibility. The war continues today, now in its fifth year, with the death toll for Americans and Iraqis rising again -- yet Moyers points out, "the press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush Administration to go to war on false pretenses."...

***

Phil Donahue recalls that he was told he could not feature war dissenters alone on his MSNBC talk show and always had to have "two conservatives for every liberal." Moyers resurrects a leaked NBC memo about Donahue's firing that claimed he "presents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. At the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

Moyers also throws some stats around: In the year before the invasion William Safire (who predicted a "quick war" with Iraqis cheering their liberators) wrote "a total of 27 opinion pieces fanning the sparks of war." The Washington Post carried at least 140 front-page stories in that same period making the administration's case for attack. In the six months leading to the invasion the Post would "editorialize in favor of the war at least 27 times." Of the 414 Iraq stories broadcast on NBC, ABC and CBS nightly news in the six months before the war, almost all could be traced back to sources solely in the White House, Pentagon or State Dept., Moyers tells (Tim) Russert, who offers no coherent reply.

The program closes on a sad note, with Moyers pointing out that "so many of the advocates and apologists for the war are still flourishing in the media." He then runs a pre-war clip of President Bush declaring, "We cannot wait for the final proof: the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Then he explains: "The man who came up with it was Michael Gerson, President Bush's top speechwriter. "He has left the White House and has been hired by the Washington Post as a columnist."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003809535

[chill_wind]

1. Thank you for this post. K &R! n/t

[rocktivity]

2. Bought it? They were force-fed it

under the fear of receiveing an envelope containing either white powder or a pink slip.

:headbang:
rocknation

[futureliveshere]

3. This is a sad state of affairs.

My only question is - "What will be done about it?"

We all knew this was happening and we have all protested it.
What now, now that the ultimate Bush insider has also confirmed this fact?

[blm]

4. The corpmedia owes this nation an apology. Especially those targeted most fiercely to protect Bush

Al Gore and John Kerry - the corporate media set out deliberately to DESTROY both of these honest men just to protect the LIES they had crafted for BushInc and their corporate masters.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

7. Al Gore, John Kerry, Max Cleland, Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson...

Valerie Plame Wilson, Paul O'Neill, Hans Blix, Scott Ritter, and the list goes on and on...

[DeepModem Mom]

9. You're right! This extends beyond the war to our democracy itself --

to our elections and the sanctity of the ballot. The press destroyed both Gore and Kerry and sanctioned the theft of at least the election of 2000, leading to the hellish years that followed. We need a high-level, broad-based self-evaluation by our free press, and an apology to the nation they are meant to serve.

[futureliveshere]

13. Why can't the Dems push the "Impeachment" idea?

I am sure the chastened press, knowing which way the wind is blowing will be quick to support that idea now.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. I wish we could do that. nt

[eleny]

5. This is so painful as we relive the agony we went through every day

I only got here in August of 2003. But the Dem bulletin boards were full of anguish during the lead up to the invasion. And the press continued to disappoint daily from then on.

[bemildred]

6. I just want to say this is all soooooo Vietnam I can't keep a straight face.

What do you do when you are one of the actors of history who everybody else can only watch, and you keep slipping on banana peels and sitting in a piles of dogshit? Why, you blame everyone else for being clumsy.

[samplegirl]

12. As I posted earlier

The repukes three magic words that left them untouchable for so long are no longer the magic bullets they once were. MISLED...MISINFORMATION...MISTAKES WERE MADE! Hopefully Scott McCellans new book will be a lasting testimony to their inconcievable lies. Their puzzled???????? I'm having a hard time conceiving that a blowjob was impeachable.

After Clinton....their flag was falling, the nation shamed by a lie. We needed a truthful "moral compass" to bring this country up from the shame inflicted. The great Uniter was born. How many times did we hear the three magic words during this Bush term and nothing done? Somehow these words made their crimes
acceptable.

No matter what they say...Scott McCellans book is testimony for the 4,100 lives who were sacraficed thus far.
Misled.......Misinformation....Mistakes were made... all equal
Lies, lies, and more lies.
How much longer will media pander to the Highest most Impeachable crimes ever? Let alone America.

[bemildred]

16. Well said.

If these weasels are not held accountable for their crimes, I mean jail, I mean impeachment, I mean being unelected by their constituents, I mean some substantial portion of all the crimes they have committed, we will all continue to live in the distopian banana republic that Bush has made the USA into.
:hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. Greg Mitchell's book,

"So Wrong For So Long," is absolutely brilliant. It should be required reading in every j-school in America, and in every high school social studies course, as well.

It's breathtaking, just a grand compilation of the coverage that got us where we are today. And he doesn't hesitate to point out which of his fellow "journalists" were the worst offenders. I can't recommend it highly enough.

And I'm going to start re-reading it today.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Thank you. I look at E&P every day, and they do a great job -- but...

I haven't read the book. I'm sure it deserves wider publicity than it gets on the site, and many more readers. Off to Amazon, and I hope other DUers will join me.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. You're going to love it,

and it will make your head explode.

I kept saying, "IT WAS KNOWN!!!! WE ALL KNEW IT!!!!!" But, the "press" fell down on its job, and Mitchell does a masterful job of pointing it out.

Enjoy...........

[The Wizard]

15. The press didn't fall,

it grovelled and kowtowed to get invited to the DC insider parties.
Tweetey Bird Matthews drooled over Bush until he realized the changes on the horizon. He still wants those invites to the DC inside the belt way parties.