'Devastating' Moyers Probe of Press and Iraq Coming

[wyldwolf]

The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called "Buying the War," which marks the return of "Bill Moyers Journal." E&P was sent a preview DVD and a draft transcript for the program this week.

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."

Among the few heroes of this devastating film are reporters with the Knight Ridder/McClatchy bureau in D.C. Tragically late, Walter Isaacson, who headed CNN, observes, "The people at Knight Ridder were calling the colonels and the lieutenants and the people in the CIA and finding out, you know, that the intelligence is not very good. We should've all been doing that."

At the close, Moyers mentions some of the chief proponents of the war who refused to speak to him for this program, including Thomas Friedman, Bill Kristol, Roger Ailes, Charles Krauthammer, Judith Miller, and William Safire.

But Dan Rather, the former CBS anchor, admits, "I don't think there is any excuse for, you know, my performance and the performance of the press in general in the roll up to the war…We didn't dig enough. And we shouldn't have been fooled in this way." Bob Simon, who had strong doubts about evidence for war, was asked by Moyers if he pushed any of the top brass at CBS to "dig deeper," and he replies, "No, in all honesty, with a thousand mea culpas….nope, I don't think we followed up on this."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003574260

[MADem]

1. Wow, my sentiments exactly. NT

[flpoljunkie]

2. Thanks, for this post, wyldwolf. A must watch! K&R!

[5X]

3. Would that we could have more of Moyers.. K and R. n/t

[ChiciB1]

4. I've Been Having Some Strange Feelings For The Last Six Months

or so... just posted something about it on another thread. I don't know if it's FEAR I'm feeling, but I do think we are on the brink of some sort of eruption of a nasty undercurrent that has been percolating here in America for far too long!

On the 28th of this month there are going to be many many IMPEACH BUSH rallies, they have 3 planes that I know of that will be flying with banners with that message on it. This is serious business. The group is relatively new, or at least it is to me... it's called A28 and I signed up with them a couple of months ago.

I'm planning to go to the one closes to me which for now is in Ft. Myers, FL. Should be very interesting.

[democrank]

5. Bravo, Bill Moyers.

Imagine....thanks to a handful of "fringe" journalists, the truth manages to escape once again.

[Tellurian]

6. WOW! Excellent, Wyldwolf. Thanks for posting!

The cracks in the dam continue widening. Gone is the drip, drip, drip, morphed to a babbling brook.
Looking forward to the raging torrent! The water speaks to us.

[wyldwolf]

7. my pleasure

[Rageneau]

8. Journalists should be assigned a permanent letter grade.

And this grade should appear on their work just as it does on eggs. Trustworthy reporters with integrity would be rated A+. Most would gets low Cs or Ds. The Russerts and Friedmans of the world would get Fs.

[Reader Rabbit]

9. Given the media's character assassination of both Gore & Kerry...

...this expose makes them look even worse—complicit, as opposed to just lazy and ignorant.

[JNelson6563]

10. K&R

I look forward to this!

[Kurovski]

11. K&R (nt)