Media asleep in Run up to Iraq war

[Mari333]

Gee ya think????? the blood is on their hands.

to this day!

In Depth Article

Major US dailies were asleep in the run-up to the Iraq war 10.03.2004

The two most influential US newspapers let the country down in the run-up to the Iraq war by failing to challenge claims by the administration of President George Bush. That's the contention of a new article in The New York Review of Books. Author Michael Massing says that The New York Times and The Washington Post were too timid to tackle a popular president and were more interested in scooping each other than in uncovering the truth about Iraq.


By Mark Baker
A recent article in an influential US journal is highly critical of the country’s two leading newspapers for failing to adequately educate the public in the run-up to last year's war in Iraq. The article, which appeared in last week’s New York Review of Books, faults The Washington Post and The New York Times for not sufficiently challenging the US administration’s case that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. Author Michael Massing accuses the papers of relying too heavily on official sources, ignoring dissenting viewpoints, and exercising self-censorship rather than risking the wrath of the administration. It’s a damning critique, both for what it says about the two newspapers in question and for what it says about journalism in general. Massing, a frequent media critic and contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, spoke to RFE/RL by telephone from his office in New York. He describes what led him to write the story. “The more I got into it, the more I was just struck by how, in the months leading up to the war, most of the top news organizations in the really did not do their job, in my view, which was to offer the American people good, independent analysis of the case that the administration was making for war,” Massing said.






http://www.isn.ethz.ch/infoservice/secwatch/index.cfm?service=cwn&parent=detail&menu=8&sNewsID=8470

[illini]

1. In the imortal words of the philospher Homer.

DOH!!!! Really.

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. It was disgusting.

Every news anchor had a visible erection over the war, it wasn't just biased reporting. It was bloodlust.

I watched it. I remember every single second of their unquestining support for lies that I could see through. I was later proven to be right and all of the media whores were wrong.

Basically the US media and Cable News in particular is pure Pentagon propaganda, and that was proven to me in the leadup to the war.

They are all trying to save their ass now and rewrite how objective they were, but anyone here who watched them knows that that is untrue.

I refuse to watch Cable Porpaganda now. I haven't watched any of their biased garbage since.

[mot78]

8. CNN and "mainstream" network even had "Showdown in Iraq" on their screen

as early as January 2002.

[bpilgrim]

3. is was nuttin but SHARK ATTACKS and the like during the summer of 01

:puke:

peace

[NC_Nurse]

4. Gee

it's a little late, isn't it? Wish somebody had said something BACK THEN!!!!

[DenverDem]

5. Asleep, hell, they were criminally complicit in treasonous misinformation.

They were in bed but they weren't asleep, if you get my drift.

[JohnyCanuck]

6. They weren't asleep at all

Problem was they had their noses firmly jammed up Dubya's bunghole and therefore their field of vision was sharply curtaled by the two hairy butt cheeks parked right in front of their eyeballs.

[dennis4868]

7. All I have to say to this is....

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!

I could have saved you time and effort and told you this....

[Jacobin]

9. Asleep? Hell they were fucking complicit in spewing the lies

My favorite in the NYT a couple of months before the war is Tom Friedman's "Just Give War a Chance" column.

Ridiculous. NOT asleep. They were part of the warmongering hoard and led the fucking charge.

[AJ BENDER]

10. Ditto #'s 6,7, & 9

:think:

[Skittles]

11. they were not asleep

they actively participated in the propaganda like the good little corporate Bush whores they are

[Leilani]

12. DUH!

The Post was a cheerleader for the war, & the Times had their own propaganda specialist.

Female reporter, was it Judith Miller? who got all her info straight from Chalabi, & wrote daily about WMDs.

[Mari333]

13. The media imo are just as responsible for the thousands of dead

and wounded on both sides as is the Bu$h administration. How they can live with themselves, I dont know.
I point my finger at them, and at the Bush admin, and at every person who supported and supports this occupation based on traitorous lies.
They too should be held accountable.
where is the outrage.

[Malva Zebrina]

14. I honestly do not think the media cares one bit

they probably do not care that they are accused of letting it happen. I am convinced that the media is too comfortable with their name in print and their salaries. When it is over, they will go to another job and another lucrative living. It is a game much like Bush is playing and any others. To be too "idiological" is really not very good for your career.