We Were Right, You Assholes

13 years ago

Now this is awesome. This is how it ought to be done.Have a little pride, for chrissakes:

The news media have been, if anything, even more craven than the administration has been in defending its failure to investigate Bush’s case for war in Iraq before the war.

Here’s ABC News’ Charles Gibson:“I think the questions were asked. It was just a drumbeat of support from the administration. It is not our job to debate them. It is our job to ask the questions.”And “I’m not sure we would have asked anything differently.”

Really?

Or this from NBC’s Brian Williams:“Sadly, we saw fellow Americans — in some cases floating past facedown (after Katrina). We knew what had just happened. We weren’t allowed that kind of proximity with the weapons inspectors [in Iraq]. I was in Kuwait for the buildup to the war, and, yes, we heard from the Pentagon, on my cell phone, the minute they heard us report something that they didn’t like. The tone of that time was quite extraordinary.”And this: “”It’s tough to go back, to put ourselves in the mind-set. It was post-9/11 America.”

So the Pentagon tells the media what kind of reporting is in- and out-of-bounds?

Hogwash.Hogwash!HOGWASH.

We confess that here atMcClatchy, which purchasedKnight Riddertwo years ago, we do have a dog in this fight. Our team – Joe Galloway, Clark Hoyt, Jon Landay, Renee Schoof, Warren Strobel, John Walcott, Tish Wells and many others – was, with a few exceptions, the only major news media organization that before the war consistently and aggressively challenged the White House’s case for war, and its lack of planning for post-war Iraq.

Journalists think of themselves like the Catholic Church does. They have these internal rules and structures and habits they’ve formed, and they think that, like church Canon Law, that this Journalism Law is something that everybody else has to follow, too, and that it must be obeyed. And so when the five guys at the top, of whom I think Brian Williams is unquestionably one, say something was inevitable, everybody else is expected to just go along. Good for McClatchy for telling them to fuck themselves.

And hey, Brian? The Pentagon’s on your phone telling you your story sucks? Buddy, I don’t know where you went to school but where I went, when an official asshole is on your phone bitching you out, you put that guy on speaker so everybody in the newsroom can hearwhat a fucking great job you’re doing. It’s hard getting yelled at, I get that. I don’t like it either. But lots of people in this war got DEAD, and so maybe you could have put up with some rudeness on the phone. You know, as a sacrifice. For your country.

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