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weapons of mass destruction.
The term “deception” that critics use to challenge
the coverage is now being liberally applied
to characterize the political leaders who started
the war. Clare Short, a former member of the
British Cabinet admitted to Parliament that
there had been willful inconsistencies, mistruths,
and embellishments in the pro-war
speeches and dossiers offered by Prime Minister
Tony Blair. She called it “honorable deception.”
And so, at last, the “d-word,” the idea of deliberate
deception enters mainstream discourse.
This leads to another question, of course. If officials
– including heads of state – whether ‘honorably’
or not, were deceptive, why didn’t the
media catch them in the act, or even try to verify
or debunk their claims. Why were all the halftruths
and the self-serving spin that they came
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
NEW YORK, JULY 1, 2003
AFTER THE WAR: THE
SUMMER OF SUMMING UP
Soldiers die, questions go unanswered
he war is over but the Iraq debate goes on as summer erupts in the West and heat rises to
insufferable degrees in the deserts of Arabia. By early July 2003, the Iraq story had become
an unending catalogue of deadly incidents claiming the lives of British and U.S. soldiers. There
were also daily reports of seething unrest and festering anger by a visibly unpurified and often
enraged Iraqi population. It seems clear that if “we” won the war, we may have already lost
the peace, if there ever was any. Alongside, the reality of the post-war war has been a non-stop parade
of allegations, debates and political recriminations over the status of the still unsuccessful hunt for
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wrapped in reported with little scrutiny?
The truth is that most media organizations
refused even to make the effort. After the war,
Michael Getler, the Washington Post omsbudsman
asked some questions that should have
been shouted before the conflict got underway:
“The question for news organizations is whether
these claims should have been reportorially
tested and challenged sufficiently. Were news
organizations inhibited for fear of seeming unpatriotic
after September llth?”
THE PATRIOTISM POLICE
THERE is no question that there was pressure on
the media to stay in line. Eric Sorenson who ran
the coverage at MSNBC told The New York
Times, “Any misstep . . . and you can have the