Moyers hammers the media for 'Buying the War' in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-04-22-bill-moyers_N.htm

Journalists were "shocked and traumatized by the atrocities of 9/11, of people hurling themselves out of 50-story windows in the World Trade Center," PBS newsman Bill Moyers says. "Their natural response was to rally around the troops, make sure the commander-in-chief got the perpetrators."
But that led most news organizations to "suspend their skepticism" of an administration bent on war in Iraq, he says, and that contributed to the "great blunder."

"Vietnam cost more lives so far, but Iraq has probably had a greater, longer traumatic effect on world events," he says.

Moyers, 72, examines the media's shortcomings in "Buying the War," a 90-minute Bill Moyers Journal special Wednesday (9 ET/PT, PBS). Among those interviewed: former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon and The Washington Post's Walter Pincus.

The media-White House dance is familiar to Moyers, who once spun the Vietnam War as a special assistant to President Johnson. "We circled the wagons. We didn't want to listen to the (CBS') Morley Safers and (the Associated Press') Peter Arnetts and (The New York Times') David Halberstams reporting on the ground. There's a tendency in Washington government to deal with your own view of the world without being contradicted by mischief-making journalists."

But during the buildup to Iraq, he says, very few journalists made mischief, and those who questioned the administration's motives were largely ignored.

[jwirr]

1. I love Bill Moyers but the media was well into the *ss supporters they

are now in the 2000 election. Bad pictures of Gore, bad stories about Gore..........

[NNN0LHI]

2. I still say Gore should have grabbed a hold of Clinton and never let go before that election

Gore would have easily won if he had. Clinton went out of office with almost a 70% approval rating.

Its water under the bridge now but I notice Senator Clinton is holding on to Bill very tightly for some reason.

Don

[HereSince1628]

3. Yep, they bought it then marketed to advertisers eager to get

their products connected to the coverage. Why? Because they correctly expected Americans to put their faces in front of TV channels carrying the story.

Yes it's the media's fault, but it's also the advertisers and it's also the viewers. I'm not finding a huge proportion of spotless souls in this tragedy.

[KansDem]

4. Media also "sold" the war...

Very little, if any attention was paid by the media whores to those individuals and groups who actually knew the facts about Iraq. Good people who shouted from the rooftops that what the Bushistas were selling wasn't true. But these folks were ignored, and the media never asked anything about Osama bin Laden's family's relationship to the Bush family; why Bush let OBL's relatives leave the country right after 9/11; why we invaded Iraq when it had nothing to do with 9/11; why we didn't invade Saudi Arabia knowing that 75% of the attackers came from there; and a whole, huge smattering of other pertinent questions. Hell, they didn't even question the 2000 election.

Also, I don't believe the media was really "shocked and traumatized" (perhaps Moyers is being polite here) about 9/11. If they were truly "shocked and traumatized," then they should have asked Bush why he sat and did nothing after being told we were under attack. That is a question that remains unanswered to this day.