May 09, 2005

Some Members of the US Congress are Curious about the rationale for the Iraq War. "We have of course known for some time that subsequent to the invasion there have been a variety of reasons proffered to justify the invasion, particularly since the time it became evident that weapons of mass destruction would not be found." Glad they're getting around to it.
posted by petebest 19 years ago
  • this is also today's subject for "send an angry e-mail to a member of the media." before anyone complains that "the mainstream media" aren't covering this, please see knight ridder's story sent out to hundreds of papers last thursday.
  • also made it to seattle times. This story's got legs like a runaway bride!! sorry - five years of angry bitter don't go easily
  • This has been all over the web -- at least my portion of the web -- but I haven't seen anything in mainstream media about this, and I've done a bunch of Googling. Supposedly, CNN has covered it, but I've seen nothing on Headline News nor can I find anything on their website. The well-fed cynic in me knows that this will be dismissed, at worst, and spun harmlessly, at best.
  • We've had Fox News on the lobby bigscreen all day today, and I've been in front of it the whole time. Nary a breath.
  • knight ridder is a newspaper wire service -- that's about as "mainstream media" as you can get. it ran the story last thursday. that means it went around to hundreds if not thousands of newspapers -- very few of which may be on google or even nexis. so, in other words, just because you don't see it don't mean it ain't being covered. it's also been covered widely overseas as that's where it originated, and is more newsworthy there right now because of the election in the U.K. oh and petebest did you see the runaway bride did time for shoplifting? heh.
  • wait wait wait - . . FOX is missing this one? MCT, that just . . that just can't be right. Are you sure? This kind of hard-hitting story is just the kind of thing FOX is known for. Did anyone think to check jeffgannon.com for the latest updates? did anyone hear there was a new Pope? He's like this religious guy in italy. My friend told me about it.
  • No, but I admit to cruising CNN salaciously looking for it :) But appearing in the mainstream and being a "mainstream news item" are different things. I'd argue the difference is that of "being all over the mainstream media" and "being buried". I bet the wire service sent out the penguins-going-through-airport-security story just as much as this one. And . . yet this one is much much more important.
  • nah, knight ridder definitely isn't a "penguins going through security" type of wire service. from the washpost ombud column yesterday: A handful of readers last week also faulted the paper for not following up on a London Sunday Times disclosure of a secret memo by a foreign policy aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair after a Bush-Blair meeting in July 2002, eight months before the invasion of Iraq. It said, in part: "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam [Hussein], through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." there you have it. a "handful" of readers. sorry to say, a lot of readers/viewers just aren't that interested anymore. actually never were in the first place. i know, i know... that seems impossible to many of you. but that's the truth. and, yeah, i realize it's a chicken and egg thing: are readers not interested because the media isn't pushing this story hard enough? or is the media not pushing harder because readers aren't interested? we face this stuff every day. who knows?
  • oh and you'll be relieved to know that the story ran on page 1 in the Myrtle Beach Sun-News. ;-)
  • Well - pfft - I do. But seriously, as a tacit admission that BushCo lied to bring us to war, should the WashPost hide behind "well not enough people are clamoring for a followup"? That seems (a)a weak excuse at best (b)ignoring the principles of journalism and . . .well, you can imagine more i'm sure. Journalism as the "Lapdog of Government"?
  • CNN covered it, but only as it related to Blair in the election.
  • this is the relevant part from that above link, in case ppl didn't want to wade through it: "The American press was made free not just to inform or just to serve as a forum for debate but also to bring an independent scrutiny to bear on the forces of power in the society, including the conduct of official power at all levels of government."
  • i looked over the 75 or so hits in nexis in the last week and most of the newspapers seemed to lean toward playing this inside the A section. which says to me, editors are probably viewing it mainly as an interesting followup to the UK election. it has an "old news" feel to it. *the preceding was intended as an exploration and/or possible explanation of journalistic decision making and not necessarily an endorsement of such*
  • Ah HA! So you admit to burying the story because you're covering up the conspir . . oh. Sorry, just read the fine print there. ;)
  • Y'know, on postview, that sounds about right. It does have an 'old news' feel, but I think it's because the people who supported the war really knew that the WMD fear-mongering was bullshit and they just didn't care. They just wanted to (a) kill Middle-Eastern people (b) get cheap oil (c) swagger like drunken abusive parents or (d) bring the sweet nectar of democracy to all opressed peoples of the world, eventually.
  • There's a great Fark-back going on over on Fark on this topic. I love a good flame-war in the afternoon...
  • This is wonderful. A friend of mine has been working on a documentary on the war and is close friends with Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who wrote an opinion piece on this last week, but the story only seems to be getting traction in mainstream media now. Just out of curiosity, how many members who signed that document are republican? If any are, I salute them.
  • But wait! There is no time for this news! Right now there are cute white girls who are the victims of crime!
  • I'm also disappointed that the whole illegal-and-immoral-war thing seems to have escaped the attention of the major media outlets. However, I think it would be nice if we could leave the 'cute white girls' out of it. Murdered kids are a poor choice of subjects for snarky commentary.
  • Neil Abercrombie, d-hawaii Brian Baird, d-washington Tammy Baldwin, d-wisconsin Xavier Becerra, d-california Shelley Berkley, d-nevada Eddie Johnson, d-texas Sanford Bishop, d-georgia Earl Blumenauer, d-oregon Corrine Brown, d-florida Sherrod Brown, d-ohio GK Butterfield, d-north carolina Emanual Cleaver, d-missouri James Clyburn, d-south carolina John Conyers, d-michigan Jim Cooper, d-tennessee Elijah Cummings, d-maryland Danny Davis, d-illinois Peter DeFazio, d-oregon Diana DeGette, d-colorado Bill Delahunt, d-massachusetts Rosa DeLauro, d-connecticut Lloyd Doggett, d-texas Sam Farr, d-california Bob Filner, d-california Harold Ford, d-tennessee Barney Frank, d-massachusetts Al Green, d-texas Raul Grijalva, d-arizona Louis Gutierrez, d-illinois Alcee Hastings, d-california Maurice Hinchey, d-new york Rush Holt, d-new jersey Jay Inslee, d-washington Sheila Jackson Lee, d-texas Jessie Jackson Jr., d-illinois Marcy Kaptur, d-ohio Patrick Kennedy, d-rhode island Dale Kildee, d-michigan Carolyn Kilpatrick, d-michigan Dennis Kucinich, d-ohio William Lacy Clay, d-missouri Barbara Lee, d-california John Lewis, d-georgia Zoe Lofgren, d-california Donna M. Christensen, d-virgin islands Carolyn Maloney, d-new york Ed Markey, d-massachusetts Carolyn McCarthy, d-new york Jim McDermott, d-washington James McGovern, d-massachusetts Cynthia McKinney, d-georgia Martin Meehan, d-massachusetts Kendrick Meek, d-florida Gregory Meeks, d-new york Michael Michaud, d-maine George Miller, d-california Gwen S. Moore, d-wisconsin James Moran, d-virginia Jerrold Nadler, d-new york Grace Napolitano, d-california James Oberstar, d-minnesota John Olver, d-massachusetts Major Owens, d-new york Frank Pallone, d-new jersey Donald Payne, d-new jersey Charles Rangel, d-new york Bobby Rush, d-illinois Bernie Sanders, d-vermont Linda Sanchez, d-california Jan Schakowsky, d-illinois Jose Serrano, d-new york Ike Skelton, d-missouri Louise Slaughter, d-new york Hilda Solis, d-california Pete Stark, d-california Ellen Tauscher, d-california Bennie Thompson, d-mississippi Edolphus Towns, d-new york Stephanie Tubbs Jones, d-ohio Chris Van Hollen, d-maryland Nydia Velazquez, d-new york Debbie Wasserman Schultz, d-florida Maxine Waters, d-california Diane Watson, d-california Melvin Watt, d-north carolina Robert Wexler, d-florida Lynn Woolsey, d-california David Wu, d-oregon Albert R. Wynn, d-maryland They're all democrats. So the next question has to be: where are the other 113 signatures?
  • Remember the Atlanta child murders of the early 80's? Most people don't. 30 black children were killed in one city. It took it a long, long time to become a national story. Do I feel bad for the families of the two girls? Of course I do. But their story is no more important nor tragic than the murder of anyone else. However, their story receives extraordinary attention, as will the investigation and prosecution of the case. And, as money is disproportionately spent on that crime, families of other murder victims will feel like the wheels of justice don't turn quite as quickly for them.
  • Bernockle, I got your point; I just thought it was a poor use of those two girls, when anything else that was on TV today would have made it just as well. Donald Trump fired whoeverthehellitwas! Look- Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt! Women-only train cars in Japan! Professional sports teams compete in competitive games of competition! Man bites f*ckin' dog! Crap... now I'm going to bed all depressed.
  • Chicken shit republicans. You'd think that at least one of them would have the balls to stand up for the right thing.
  • Chicken shit republicans. You'd think that at least one of them would have the balls to stand up for the right thing. Mmm.