David Sirota: The Rats Are Jumping Ship From Iraq

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/46946/

The Rats Are Jumping Ship from Iraq
By David Sirota, San Francisco Chronicle. Posted January 20, 2007.

How can we expect the media and politicians to be a watchdog if its leading analysts and news framers face no public sanctions when they disrespect the truth or give credence to fringe ideologies?

In 2005, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards said about his vote for war in Iraq: "I was wrong I take responsibility." This statement, so simple, has been all too rare from politicians and leading media voices. Instead, as the war rages on -- a war itself originally based on lies -- our political arena still teems with icons more interested in hiding the truth. That's no small matter. As the saying goes, the first step to recovery is admitting the problem. Sadly, though, the flip side is also true -- refusing to admit a problem will perpetuate that problem indefinitely.

- snip -

Pundits and news analysts are employed to expose this sort of nonsense so that our democratic discourse -- and the policy choices that come out of it -- are grounded in fact. But that has not happened. Instead, we have seen a furious stampede by the most prominent media figures to cover their own hides with either more lies, or more out-of-the mainstream bluster.

Time Magazine's Joe Klein, for instance, last week claimed he has "been opposed to the Iraq war ever since 2002." Readers were expected to forget about his nationally televised declaration in late February 2003 -- the critical days just before the invasion was ordered. "War may well be the right decision at this point," Klein told NBC's Tim Russert. "In fact, I think it probably is."

This followed venerated New York Times columnist David Brooks who, rather than admitting the failure of his Iraq war cheerleading, lashed out at anti-war challenges to pro-war incumbents, writing that "primary voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics" (apparently, democracy and elections are no longer an acceptable way to run our country). Weeks later, the Washington Post's Richard Cohen justified his support for the war by flippantly writing that
he thinks "the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic."

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[malaise]

1. Superb article

No accountability is expected from talking heads or 'favored politicians'. Hosts don't even mention previous lies spewed by themselves or their guests. The 'agenda' supercedes every notion of honesty, decency or integrity.

[NewJeffCT]

2. the media folks are good at CYA

The much-maligned Chris "Tweety" Matthews has been against the war from the beginning, but he's made such glowingly orgasmic comments about Bush after the invasion that it obscures his original opposition for the war... then, when the war goes bad, he can go back to "see, I was against the war from the beginning"

[lligrd]

3. I Admit To Being One Who Thought Our Media Were Infallible

until Dumya got selected that is. I knew, something was wrong then but didn't completely catch on to their complicity until Iraq. Still, as disappointed as I am by the media, I am still more chagrined at some of the Dems that I had always trusted and who let me down. And I won't even go into how the American public let me down.

[leveymg]

4. Cohen: "The prudent use of violence [in Iraq] could be therapeutic"

Go tell it to the war widows, orphans, and the people who will never walk again, Richard.

Prudently used, violence could also be therapeutic for arrogant pundits, too.

16th Century stocks and whipping post.

[rodeodance]

5. Great article and thanks and REC

[depakid]

6. As always, Sirota tell it like it is

and takes no prisoners.

Joe Klein? He ought to completely unemployable in the journalism profession. Anyone he writes for loses credibility.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10990027/#Klein

Hopefully, one day he will be unemployable- along with pseudo-intellectual David Brooks, who's simply unreadable and unwatchable.

Richard Cohen? I reckon he just needs to pass high school algebra....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/02/15/BL2006021501989.html

[Hissyspit]

7. .

[roamer65]

8. Because John Edwards admitted his mistake, he will get my support...

for president if Al Gore decides not to run. Al was anti-war from the git-go.