McClellan: Media During Run-Up to Iraq Were “Complicit Enablers”

So McClellan’s argument is that “the media should not have bought the lies that I and others were selling?” Does McClellan address his own guilt as one of the primary “propagandists”? I hope so. If not, that would be quite an omission.

Jake,
Do you think Scott is right? Is the media failing?
I know that in my experience, the only voices questioning the Bush administration in the run up to the war were only to be found on blogs and news message boards.
For the entire Bush administration, the media have been nothing more than glorified stenographers. Why is that?

I see the same patterns continuing in this election year. The MSM have crowned the king already, and there are more states still to vote. It’s ridiculous how many sources one has to read these days to get any semblance of the truth from the media. I can’t believe there would be anyone working for this administration that I could ever respect, but please step forward Mr. McClellan and take a bow. Well done!

Sounds like the media is complicit in the Vilifying of the Clinton’s AGAIN!
The myth of a liberal MEDIA is just that a MYTH! BIG BIZ REPUBS are the media also running this OBAMA campaign, he will be easy to annihilate! The fix is hard to make stick this time. When are they going to close the deal for him?

The media has tried to run this country for the last decade, but people are waking up and seeing they are running it into the ground. We need to learn to use our brains and not parrott the talking heads on tv. Say NO TO MR. MICHELLE OBAMA

But it seems to me that some of the garbage being said is in the book is coming from Liberal blogger and reporters!!
LOL Spock!….THE WH has not cried lies!
Rove and the gang have suggested that Scott is deranged, have not called him a liar. They easily identify with both as they are clearly deranged and LIARS!!!

This is the first indicment in the case against the “Fifth Estate.” Long overdue, but who will care when “American Idol” is on. The media and the government are the Lions and we are the Lambs to be led to the slaughter, while they pick at and profit off of our corpse. The manistream media IS a part of the government. They are used to govern YOU! I’m sorry if you haven’t figured this out yet, but you will be a better person if you do.

HP Boston | May 28, 2008 11:27:33 AM
Impeach bush ? No.
He is world’s war criminal ! The world need justice.

Investigative journalism is gone. Gas prices have doubled since American companies overseen by the VP have taken over the 2nd largest oil producing nation in the world. I am sure some investigative journalism would reveal the corrupt capitalistic monopoly that is squeezing us to death. Instead of reporting daily record prices and oil companies projections of $4, $5, $10, etc. prices reporters need to be investigating the real reason why and not just parroting oil company lies of exploration, speculation, threats from Iran, hurricans, instability, and all their other lies.

Whatever happened to unbiased reporting? We’ve lost touch when the news agencies clearly distinguish themselves as democrat, or republican? Then it’s just pushing whatever parties agenda, the reporting is neither fair, or unbiased at that point.
We regularly scream for political reform, but we need to demand the same from news organizations as well. If the news were accurately reported, politicians would be getting away with far less nonsense, and be much more accountable for their actions.

Not everyone was blind to what was happening; unfortunately those who were trying to point out the shortcomings of the administration’s story were not being given much of a voice at the time. The administration’s propaganda machine did a good job of equating being complicit in the march to war with patriotism (a technique proven time-and-again throughout history to be effective). The media just went along. I remember there was a site, that was frozen at the time of the invasion. It’s interesting to see just how much information in support of not going into Iraq was available at the time and simply being ignored by the mainstream press and the public at large. The consequences, sadly, have been and will continue to be tragic. In addition to lives directly lost across the board, it will take the full working lives of well over a million people to pay for this folly (to say nothing of the secondary economic consequences which play right into the pockets of Bush’s and Cheney’s closest business associates).

The Bush Admn and their supporters put a great deal of effort into destroying anyone who spoke against the war. They tried to hurt financially entertainers, like the Dixie Chicks, Linda Ronstadt, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and others, so they may have been leaning on members of the media as well. We know there was subtle pressure put on the CIA and other intelligence outlets to spin the intel. We also know that they spoon fed news outlets with their talking points, then quoted those outlets as if those news people had developed the stories on their own. They were masters of manipulation, but not of developing good policy.

Wow, that’s so unexpected. Next week, the media announces that the sky is blue, water runs down hill and everyone is growing older. Gimme a break. The media acting “shocked, just shocked,” is about as disingenous as it gets. This is the same group of “reporters” that have Karl Rove giving “commentary,” when he should really be facing criminal charges. The same group that can’t find an “unimbedded” journalist in their ranks. The only thing missing is marrionette strings and a flag pin that says, ” I am a stooge for the Republican lie machine.”

While I am gratified that McClellan has stepped up, frankly it would have been truly patriotic to have done so when the polls weren’t so favorable.
In 2004, Jon Stewart and the fake “news” Daily Show was about the only outlet with the courage to challenge the popular press and the Neocon agenda. He seemed to know quite well his duty, as Court Jesters have through the ages. In 2006, the tide began to turn and more of the conventional media began to question, but only after the polls showed that the American public had lost faith in the President and didn’t believe a word he said any longer.
It doesn’t take courage to tell the truth under those circumstances. The real heroes are the ones that have been vilified as traitors, cowards, and of course “liberals” since 2002. And we, the American public, deserve much of what we get. When more people vote for their choice as American Idol than vote for their choice of representative to Congress, don’t we all deserve the government that we’re getting?

At one point Bush Asked Americans for their Trust. Being the president I gave him my Trust because he asked for it. I’m a democrat and switched to republican briefly because I wanted to back the President on the War on Terror. It turns out Bush invented the term War on Terror and gave us a War of deception in Iraq. For that he mislead us. That is worse than Bin Laden who openly declared his jealousy and hatred of America, at least he is an honest Coward. When you betray the Trust of the American People as was done in the Bush Administration a criminal act occurred. I just pray what Bush did was not deliberate on his part. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Wolferitz et. al., are obvious bad people in spite of and good intentions they may ever have had. G’d Bless America and the Constitution of America.

Um, kind of ironic that this website belongs to one of the “complicit enablers”, no? What better way to defuse the problem than share it on your website.
The Fourth Estate must end.

It’s too easy blaming the media. I’m just a normal guy who reads a lot of news. I knew in 2003 that the UN inspection was mostly working in getting rid of WMDs, and that Saddam was suspected of trying to make it appear otherwise mostly out of fear of Iran. I knew Saddam was if anything an enemy of al Qaeda, and that in fact their anger with us had been inflamed when the Saudis let us rather than them take on Saddam back in 1991. I knew that if Saddam was taken out, the Shia majority in Iraq would inevitably take over (they will) and most likely align with Iran (most likely – a result caused by the invasion itself, now positioned by Republicans to be blamed on withdrawal). I knew Iraq was too fractured to be pulled readily into a unified state.
At the time, I tried to persuade people that Bush’s staff must know all of this, too, and that their threats to invade were just a ploy. I was stunned when it actually happened, and kept waiting for that secret information that supposedly justified it. Obviously, they are either corrupt or idiots (or some of both). There were no good reasons to invade Iraq after all, and few to stay. (No, al Qaeda will not take over. They are in no position to do so and have no more reason than we have to try to occupy an entire foreign land, since they already have a comfy home base in Pakistan.)
But there was no secret information. Everything was as the news media had been reporting it clearly enough before the war drumbeats had started drowning everything out. Everything was as accessible facts, and still accessible then, indicated.
In a democracy, it is a citizen’s responsibility to understand the facts. Blame the politicians and the media all you want, but all of this information was available to anyone who was interested and thorough enough to look for it. We could not have been fooled if we had done our jobs as the ultimate rulers in a democracy.
The Republicans have made it utterly clear that they intend to continue to get their way by duping us. That has been their model since “Reaganomics.” They will keep doing it until we punish them for it. It does make sense to vote them out just for that stance, and to keep them out until they admit it, apologize and promise to quit doing it. But we also should have known better. This story is trying to offer voters an excuse. We don’t deserve it.

This is news? And I know this is a difficult concept – but you ARE the news.

HP Boston – From Boston well that says a lot anyhow
Lets see someone writes a book about Kerry you libs cry it is a lie, People bring up facts about Barack Hussein Obama you libs say its lies or taken out of context, but someone who writes a book about Pres. Bush who by his own book sat by all this well thats truth!!
Anybody say Hypocritical!!

The media is generally “liberal”, but not in this case. War is good for their business. When a war starts, news show ratings go up. Of course they weren’t going to question something that would help their ratings.