I read
Isikoff and Hosenball's latest article on how the White House Manipulated the Media. The article in insightful in how this administration deliberately manipulated the information to build up the case for the war against Iraq. They start the article by stating:
Oct. 19, 2005 - The lengthy account by New York Times reporter Judy Miller about her grand jury testimony in the CIA leak case inadvertently provides a revealing window into how the Bush administration manipulated journalists about intelligence on Iraq's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.
But, wait a minute, say's Arianna in another brilliant essay. There were plenty of signs, and many credible sources of information to dispute the administration's case. MSM simply chose to ignore it. They just plain fucking lazy. There were many, many moments to credibly initiate a national debate and hold the administration accountable. No, none of these chaps--Mathews, Ishikoff, Andrea Mitchell etc. etc. etc. did their jobs.
Arianna , highlights some of those wasted moments, where MSM just slept at the wheel:
May 2002
We could have had a sustained national discussion back in May 2002, when Time published an article describing Cheney as saying that "the question was no longer if the U.S. would attack Iraq... the only question was when", and offering that "Rumsfeld has been so determined to find a rationale for an [Iraq] attack that on 10 separate occasions he asked the CIA to find evidence linking Iraq to the terror attacks of Sept. 11. The intelligence agency repeatedly came back empty-handed".
July 2003
We could have had a sustained national discussion in July 2003, when, following publication of Joe Wilson's op-ed, a firestorm broke out regarding the president's use of the Niger/Saddam uranium connection in his 2003 State of the Union speech, even though the bogus claim had been thoroughly discredited many times over. The administration fanatics so badly wanted it to be true they refused to let it die the death it deserved (still wonder why the White House wanted to discredit Wilson?)
January 2004
We could have had a sustained national discussion in January 2004, when Paul O'Neill let it be known that invading Iraq had been Bush's goal before he had even learned where the Oval Office supply closet was, just 10 days after the president was inaugurated. "It was all about finding a way to do it," O'Neill said. "That was the tone of it. The president saying `Go find me a way to do this.'"
March 2004
We could have had a sustained national discussion in March 2004, when Richard Clarke published "Against All Enemies", painting a devastating portrait of an administration teeming with zealots for whom evidence is little more than an obstacle on the path to greater glory: "`Look,'" Clarke quoted Bush as saying on the day after 9/11, "`I know you have a lot to do and all, but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way.' `But, Mr. President, Al Qaeda did this.' `I know, I know -- but see if Saddam was involved. Just look...'"
April 2004
We could have had a sustained national discussion in April 2004, when Bob Woodward published "Plan of Attack", which showed a vice-president so obsessed with linking Saddam to 9/11 that no piece of intelligence that supported his hypothesis was deemed too unreliable to be used. Cheney was like an al Qaeda alchemist, converting shards of faulty intel into golden reason for pr-emptive war. It also revealed how Colin Powell -- further out of the war loop than Prince Bandar -- made like a Good Soldier when the president asked him to carry his sample vial of anthrax at the UN, and set out to hoodwink the world.
May 2005
And we could have had a sustained national discussion in May of this year when the Downing Street Memo story hit, and we learned that, in July 2002, Richard Dearlove, the head of British intelligence, had reported that in Washington "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".
For a variety of reasons -- including a spineless opposition and a go-along media -- the debate never took hold.
Conclusion: It is not just the White House. You are equally responsible.
Consequence: 2182 Total Fatalities. 1983 US Fatalities..
Memo to Judy and the rest of the MSM Gang: How about apologizing now?