Thursday, August 12, 2004

 

Yum! Crow!

The Washington Post is re-thinking it's war coverage.


I think this article, much like the New York Times article from May 26, 2004, critical of their own pre-war reporting, accomplishes a couple of things. First of all, this puts a huge dent in the theory of a "liberal media." If these articles prove anything, it's that the media is NOT liberal. Just because a newspaper prints something negative about a conservative, it does not make them liberal. (Although, if they don't print the negative stuff, they can somehow call themselves "Fair and Balanced.") Throughout the entire Monica Lewinsky scandal, I can not recall President Clinton whining about the "conservative media." The media prints the negative stuff as well as the positive. It's what we call reporting. In this case however, it looks as if the media was actually helping the President.

I also think this article lends credence to all the Michael Moores, Al Frankens, and a myriad of bloggers out there that have been criticizing the media for blindly following the President. I believe Michael Moore called it "cheerleading." They simply weren't willing to ask the questions that needed to be asked. Our government likes to talk about accountability, especially in education, but nobody in the media was willing to hold them accountable. They slavishly reprinted the lies to avoid being labeled liberal or unpatriotic while knowing full well that the intelligence was shaky. Any high school journalism student can tell you that that is just sloppy reporting. They should all be ashamed of themselves.

I think the Washington Post and the New York Times are on the right track by issuing these apologies, but now they have to do the hard part and actually make the change. One of the things that has kept this President afloat so long is the media's willingness to blindly go along with whatever he says. If the media were to finally leave him, I believe the general public would soon follow.



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