When Will the Mainstream Media Get It Right?
Facts have never gotten in the way of the Bush Administration. Too often, it lives and dies by the big lie, repeated over and over again. Reporters call this “spin,” because the word “lie” makes them uncomfortable. But whatever name they give it, they should always provide evidence (call it verifiable fact or context) that measures the spin against what is known. Providing this contrast, after all, is the news media’s job.
What’s happening in Washington this week is clear. After weeks of utter chaos on the ground in Baghdad — kidnappings, sectarian mass murders, bombs and the flight of the middle class to neighboring countries — the Iraqi government filled its Cabinet and U.S. troops killed a very evil guy, Musab al-Zarqawi. It is good news and it does provide an inkling of hope. But now the Bush Administration wants to cash in politically by renewing its historical assault on Democrats as wimps and defeatists and by making the news of Zarqawi’s death partisan.
The problem with this spin is that most of the facts don’t support either the Administration’s vision of reality in Iraq or its renewed efforts to tie Iraq to the broader war on terror (and, by extension, 9/11). That information, too, is part of the news – an important part if the American public is to make sense of what’s really going on.
Jerry Lanson | CommonDreams (read more. . .)