Bill Moyers - "Buying The War"

[owl]

Transcript of last night's PBS show "Buying the War". It's an amazing recollection and analysis of how the press reacted post-Sept. 11. It's lengthy, I know, so I'm just putting it out there for interested or inclined parties.

 

I'm finding it particularly interesting because I was in college at the time, and missed a lot of the press coverage after we'd begun to fight in Afghanistan. I never wanted the U.S. to invade Iraq, but I also never really experienced the TV coverage that led many Americans to support the effort.

 

(Here's the original link to the Poynter-Romenesko blog where I found this.)

[bjorn_skurj]

I saw that. We as journalists totally fucked that one up.

[anodyne]

gaaah! i meant to tivo that!!! fuck.

 

here's hoping for an encore re-run.

[tugmoose]

Probably available online. I came close to quitting the biz in '03 over the media's sorry performance. No one wanted to wind up on the "wrong" side of the story, so they gave the president free reign. Even if they didn't agree with the policy, they bet on the administration's competence to successfully prosecute the war. They bet wrong.

[MrRain422]

Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com has done a pretty good job recently of showing how a lot of the people most responsible for completely failing in how they covered the run up to the war are now completely denying any sort of fault. Sad.

[bjorn_skurj]

To be honest, I thought some sort of WMD would turn up somewhere. I thought the administration would be at least on the ball enough to plant something, but the fact they didn't indicates that they must have really believed some would turn up. It's one thing to be evil, but to be evil and stupid is just inexcusable.

[tugmoose]

It's one thing to be evil, but to be evil and stupid is just inexcusable.

It's like the old movie axiom: People will like a character, no matter what he does, as long as he's good at his job.

[Reni]

there was an interesting interview with an Italian reporter on NPR today who wrote a book about the Italian government's complicity in the false information being passed around in the lead up to the war. It was very interesting - though also very sad.

[cryptique]

Probably available online.

clicky.

[Mrs. Peel]

gaaah! i meant to tivo that!!! fuck.

 

here's hoping for an encore re-run.

 

It's on several more times in the next few days....in my listings anyway. I just set my Tivo. I forgot all about it too.

[anodyne]

quite the opposite of finding wmds, we left unguarded a depot of massive quantities of high explosives that found their way to insurgent hands. not surprisingly, high explosives are the favorite weapon of the insurgency. so rather than removing lethal weapons, we facilitated the acquisition and moved americans within range of these weapons.

[bjorn_skurj]

[uncle wilco]

just when you think bush couldn't do anything more to look like a bigger idiot.

[owl]

On the Daily Show two night ago, the Moment of Zen was a clip of Bush banging on those drums and wagging his hips.

[tongue-tied]

can't blame a guy for letting loose, but he's got no rhythm on the drum whatsoever