Former CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer told Columbus Dispatch writer Tim Feran that the gossip was untrue that he was trashing Katie Couric in the press. "I was not the source for that story, period. I had nothing to do with it...and I don't know who did." Schieffer also took exception to the Bill Moyers theory that the national media were enablers to President Bush's runup to war in Iraq.
Q: In his recent PBS report about the run-up to the Iraq war, Bill Moyers said: "The press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush administration to go to war on false pretenses." Do you agree?
A: I don't think we enabled them to go to war, although there's no question we should have asked harder questions. But I think the Democrats should have asked harder questions, the CIA should have asked harder questions, the people within the administration should have asked harder questions. Somewhere along the way, the decision to go into Iraq somehow became the fault of the press.
Schieffer came down against media outlets giving up on dinner events with the politicians in power, and then no doubt really frustrated the purists by saying he and White House spokesman Tony Snow will have a battle of the bands at the National Press Club. (Hat tip: Romenesko)
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The Iraq Narrative
May 7, 2007 - 17:19 ET by exLibOf Course it has to be the press' fault.
That lets the Democrats off the hook, since it was ALL Bush's Fault and then the Media didn't do it's job of "tough questions".
I don't know about anybody else but with the exception of about a week or two where ALL the Democrats who voted for the resolution came out in favor of it and the few weeks of the actual war, the press seemed pretty against it to me.
I remember a week or two into the war Amonpour and some other CNN reporter was already calling the war a failure.
I guess the liberals need this illusion that the Press was "enabling" Bush on the Iraq, unforutnately most of the talking heads are going along.
It's also their current excuse for the penance...
May 7, 2007 - 23:05 ET by SportPoliticsIt's also their current excuse for the penance... which amounts to crying wailing and moaning about everything concerning the war in Iraq. They helped start it so the least they can do is make sure it stops. It's now their "responsibility". But, of course they don't do advocacy journalism,since that would be so, so wrong.
You're right, exLib. A week
May 8, 2007 - 08:07 ET by GalvanicYou're right, exLib. A week or two after the offensive kicked off, Coalition units halted, and the media attributed it to stiffening Iraqi resistence. In actuality, the ground offensive was moving so reapidly against marginal and sporatic resistence, that it had outrun its logistics, and was pausing to allow supplies --- principally fuel and water ---- to catch up. None of the imbedded journlists were reporting a stiffening Iraqi resistence; editors came to the conclusion based on their own anti-American bias. Some even accused CENTCOM of staging the Jessica Lynch rescue --- in essence, faking it --- in order to distract media attention away from the "fact" that the offensive had been stopped dead in its tracks.
As soon as forward units were replenished, the offensive rolled on straight to Baghdad, blowing Iraqi resistence apart and liberating the city.
As if being in Iraq is bad in
May 7, 2007 - 17:20 ET by bigtimerAs if being in Iraq is bad in the first place.
Shame on all of them...for insinuating this in the first place.
I am tired of it.
Ungrateful, spoiled people in this country...the bigger picture is too much for them too handle.
We went to Iraq despite the
May 7, 2007 - 17:26 ET by dabalWe went to Iraq despite the best efforts of socialists everywhere, including the media. We were attacking a socialist (Saddams' Baathist Party is National Socialist, aka NAZI), and they were defending him.
Bush acted before they were able to organize resistance to the war. With 90% support at the time of authorization, no politician DARED to move against such enormous popular support, regardless of party. Well, a few, and now we are suffering their idocy in the House and Senate.
Jacques Chiraq and Dominique de Villepin, anyone?
Bigtimer:Concur, this approac
May 7, 2007 - 17:27 ET by BDBigtimer:
Concur, this approaches the issue from a defacto point that our participation in Iraq is a mistake which I think most Soldiers would dispute.
Great point BT
May 7, 2007 - 18:27 ET by acumenGreat point BT - It would have been a fault if we had not gone in there. How many broken UN Resolutions by Saddam does Feran, Moyers and Schieffer require before we take action?
How many broken resolutions,
May 7, 2007 - 18:31 ET by BlondeHow many broken resolutions, or how many times were these resolutions were broken?
It doesn't matter, really.
How many times could Saddam possibly have said "Oops, sorry"?
I suspect that number surely approaches infinity.
Who is to blame for the Fre
May 7, 2007 - 20:52 ET by JDWWho is to blame for the French not voting socialist? Obviously they were too insipid to know better.
JDW
News media: Scoreboard for terrorists
JDW, I assume you meant stu
May 8, 2007 - 05:04 ET by motherbeltJDW, I assume you meant stupid. "Insipid" means dull, flat, or tasteless. I guess one could argue that describes the French too, LOL, but not in the sense of voting.
Why the constant need to revi
May 8, 2007 - 05:09 ET by JWFWhy the constant need to revise the history we witnessed with our own eyes?
Here is the hard question I asked in 2003. "It is about freakin' time!" oh wait, that was not a question....
I did not need any questions about WMD's or security briefings or yellowcake or al queda affiliations etc.
All I needed was the newspaper headlines from the LAST 12 YEARS!
Oh, so you are just to blame
May 8, 2007 - 09:31 ET by ucOh, so you are just to blame for the "War on Terror"?
Again, Saddam enabled US to go into Iraq. I am though starting to see that Saddam could have seen throwing US and the world intelligence community a faint to let us think he had them while he claimed he didn't would put our Press and Democrats on the front line (as a WMD) in his machinations and leave them his most effective and cheapest tool/weapon.???
I guess all we can stand on is "majority rule" and its "rule of laws."
Could Saddam have been so devious?
Mitt Romney may be ready to be a President during military activities for his fights against the Kennedy machines and may be a candidate for peace time for his time with Olympics.??? Now to think about the rest of the contenders.