Media Fails To Report Rumsfeld¹s Misleading Claims From March 2003
Today¹s media coverage of CIA veteran Ray McGovern¹s tough
questioning of Rumsfeld yesterday has surprisingly posed a great
challenge to the media about how aggressively they would cover the
episode.
To quickly recap yesterday¹s events, McGovern asked Rumsfeld, ³[W]hy
did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary.² When
Rumsfeld protested that he did not lie, McGovern presented the
evidence, saying that Rumsfeld had claimed he knew where the WMD
were. And McGovern was right:
RUMSFELD: We know where [the WMD] are. They¹re in the area around
Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. [ABC
This Week, 3/30/03]
While the media has been quick to cover McGovern¹s accusation that
Rumsfeld lied, many news accounts have failed to report Rumsfeld¹s
own words from March 2003. The lead AP story, written by Shannon
McCaffrey, fails to make any mention of it. Versions of the AP story
have been reported in today¹s Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, and
many other papers.
Cox News Service also wrote a story that failed to report Rumsfeld¹s
own words. The Cox story was reported in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, among other papers.
Fortunately, there have been a small number of news accounts that
reported Rumsfeld¹s statements, most notably the L A Times and the
Chicago Tribune.
Are newsrooms across the country afraid of being perceived as
anti-war ³hecklers² and ³hostile war critics² if they accurately
report the administration¹s false claims?
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/05/media-fails-to-report/
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