CT Blue

I am just piggybacking onto Atrios here, but I think it’s worth doing. Recognizing good journalism is as important as decrying the trash, particularly since, for the most part, we internet types don’t have the resources to do original reporting.

I have written about the brain dead way portions of our media (including the New York Times) have fallen into line behind Bushco’s latest practice of calling the “enemy” in Iraq “Al-Qaeda“. Not only have they gone along with the terminology, but they have done so without explanation, and seemingly without reflection.

McClatchey, the former Knight-Ridder, was the only major news organization that was skeptical during the run up to war, and it does itself proud on this issue as well (Bush plays al Qaida card to bolster support for Iraq policy ):

Facing eroding support for his Iraq policy, even among Republicans, President Bush on Thursday called al Qaida “the main enemy” in Iraq, an assertion rejected by his administration’s senior intelligence analysts.

The reference, in a major speech at the Naval War College that referred to al Qaida at least 27 times, seemed calculated to use lingering outrage over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster support for the current buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq, despite evidence that sending more troops hasn’t reduced the violence or sped Iraqi government action on key issues.

Bush called al Qaida in Iraq the perpetrator of the worst violence racking that country and said it was the same group that had carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

“Al Qaida is the main enemy for Shia, Sunni and Kurds alike,” Bush asserted. “Al Qaida’s responsible for the most sensational killings in Iraq. They’re responsible for the sensational killings on U.S. soil.”

U.S. military and intelligence officials, however, say that Iraqis with ties to al Qaida are only a small fraction of the threat to American troops. The group known as al Qaida in Iraq didn’t exist before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, didn’t pledge its loyalty to al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden until October 2004 and isn’t controlled by bin Laden or his top aides.

Bush’s references to al Qaida came just days after Republican Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and George Voinovich of Ohio broke with Bush over his Iraq strategy and joined calls to begin an American withdrawal.

“The only way they think they can rally people is by blaming al Qaida,” said Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center who’s critical of the administration’s strategy.

Next month, the Senate is expected to debate the Iraq issue as it considers a Pentagon spending bill. Democrats are planning to offer at least three amendments that seek to change Iraq strategy, including revoking the 2002 resolution that authorized Bush to use force in Iraq and mandating that a withdrawal of troops begin within 120 days.

Bush’s use of al Qaida in his speech had strong echoes of the strategy the administration had used to whip up public support for the Iraq invasion by accusing the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of cooperating with bin Laden and implying that he’d played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks. Administration officials have since acknowledged that Saddam had no ties to bin Laden or 9-11.

A similar pattern has developed in Iraq, where the U.S. military has cited al Qaida 33 times in a barrage of news releases in the last seven days, and some news organizations have echoed the drumbeat. Last month, al Qaida was mentioned only nine times in U.S. military news releases.

In a barely polite way, they are accusing Bush of lying again, just like he lied us into war in the first place. How refreshing-a news organization that actually examines the truth content of statements that are being made, rather than just report them.