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Bill Moyers reports on media complicity in selling the war

I just finished watching Bill Moyer’s Journal, in which he chronicles the media’s failure to do its job (with some honorable exceptions) during the run up to war. What I found interesting was the excuses so many of them made: that the information wasn’t out there, or if it was, that the political momentum toward war was irresistible, and that saying anything critical of the war would have left them too exposed to a mindless juggernaut of public opinion that would have crushed them.

As to the first argument, it’s total nonsense. The information was out there. The second argument is nonsense as well, but its one that many people have a tendency to accept, because we have talked ourselves into believing that there was overwhelming public support for the war at the time it was started.

That’s just not true. There was a great deal of skepticism in the country prior to the initiation of hostilities, as well as a desire that inspections be allowed to run their course. The degree of skepticism was remarkable, given the fact that the average American was relentlessly exposed to pro-war propaganda, and to very little skeptical reporting. Had reporters done their jobs, there is every reason to believe that the number of Americans opposing the war would have been even higher. After the war started, of course, public opinion solidified behind it so long as things were going well. That was to be expected, as was the gradual and steady disilllusionment once the scope of the much predicted disaster became clear.

So folks like Dan Rather and Bob Simon of CBS are a bit disingenuous when they excuse their lack of public skepticism by citing their fear of getting ahead of the curve. They helped create a curve that only barely existed, and helped prevent a highly skeptical public from being even more skeptical. When the existence of skeptics was acknowledged, they were dismissed and derided.

The Beltway folks believe we’re stupid, and conduct themselves accordingly. We see it now as they convince themselves that Harry Reid blundered when he said what everyone knows: that we’re losing the war. They believe the public will turn on him, and, once again in service to their Republican masters, they’re doing their best to make that happen, but the people feel differently.

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