Jeff Cohen: Being a TV Expert Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry

[Hissyspit]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/342

Jeff Cohen: Being a TV Expert Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 08/04/2006 - 1:24pm. Guest Contribution
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Jeff Cohen

- snip -

Somehow NBC couldn't dig up the quotes of Rumsfeld saying that he doubted the war would last six months (Feb. 7, 2003) or that US troops "would be welcomed" in Iraq (Feb. 20, 2003) or that "we know where are" (March 30, 2003). The quotes were easily dug up by ThinkProgress.

For me, there was something worse than allowing Rumsfeld's doozy to go unrebutted. It was who NBC News turned to for expert analysis of the testimony: retired General Barry McCaffrey.

- snip -

Unlike McCaffrey (and Rumsfeld), I warned over and over on the air that invading Iraq would lead to disaster, a quagmire, and hatred for our country in the Muslim world. I repeatedly questioned the evidence that Iraq was an imminent threat. So did my colleague Phil Donahue, in primetime. We were on the money. And now we're off the air. But TV "experts" like Gen. McCaffrey, who echoed White House claims of an Iraqi threat and cheered our country into the war, are still on the air. And they never have to say they're sorry.

On MSNBC two months before the war, McCaffrey warned that Iraq was in current possession of "thousands of gallons of mustard agents, sarin, nerve agent VX."

His prewar commentary left viewers ill-prepared for what would follow a U.S. invasion. Nowadays, he's no Rumsfeld booster -- but McCaffrey was upbeat when it mattered, weeks before the war: "I just got an update briefing from Secretary Rumsfeld and his team on what's the aftermath of the fighting. And I was astonished at the complexity and dedication with which they've gone about thinking through this: humanitarian aid, find the weapons of mass destruction, protect the population, jump-start an Iraqi free media. So a lot of energy has gone into this."

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Jeff Cohen's new book is "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media." He founded the media watch group FAIR.

[Ezlivin]

1. Sometimes it means that you are actually a cab driver

Did anyone else see the clip of the "expert" who turned out to be a cab driver?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2178097,00.html

[joemurphy]

2. Yup. Being a pundit is never having to say you're sorry.

Because you're never wrong.

I learned this lesson during the DC sniper coverage. At that time, all kinds
of "FBI Profilers" crawled out of the woodwork describing the sniper as white, probably young, and probably a skinhead type a la Timothy McVeigh.

Those same "profilers" (the Clint Van Zandt's of the world) are still around anytime there's an unsolved murder anymore.

That's why I want to puke every time I hear Tom Friedman, David Brooks or Howard Fineman expound on the Middle East. They were all for us going in. They shouldn't have the weight to even comment on it now. But they're pundits and pundits never die because the honchos at CNN and MSNBC never let them.