MRC intern Chadd Clark reports that CNN's "American Morning" touched on the new declassified document suggesting there were 500 WMDs found in Iraq since last year -- touched on it quickly, and with complete disdain:
John Roberts: "As the Senate opened debate on
U.S./> troops in Iraq/>/>, two Republican lawmakers claim that weapons of mass destruction still pose a threat. They said troops have found aging stockpiles of chemical shells." Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.): "It is important for the American public to understand that these weapons did in fact exist, were present in the country, and were, in fact, and continue to be, a threat to us."
Roberts: "That claim is being refuted, by the way, by the man who surveyed
Iraq/>/>'s weapons program for the CIA in 2004. Charles Duelfer says the chemical shells are no longer effective."
He counted that exchange at about 25 seconds. By contrast, Fox's "Special Report with Brit Hume" spent more than 10 minutes on it last night.
Knight-Ridder's new report has a pretty disdainful headline as well: "New report offers no evidence that
But that misses the first point of this munitions find tests journalistic accuracy: journalists and pundits have routinely stated as a hardened Iraq fact that there were "no weapons of mass destruction" in Saddam's Iraq that could be obtained by terrorists.
