News Media Give Overlooked Memo on Iraq Second Glance
News Media Give Overlooked Memo on Iraq Second Glance
By Howard (call me Mistuh) Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 16, 2005; C01
For many liberals already frustrated with the media's coverage of President Bush, it has become a rallying cry over the past six weeks: What about the Downing Street memo?
Their anger, amplified by left-wing advocacy groups, columnists, bloggers and some Democrats in Congress, has gradually forced the mainstream media to take a second look at a document that received spotty coverage after it was reported May 1 by London's Sunday Times.
Journalists offered various explanations for the scant attention paid to the July 2002 British memo, which, in recounting a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top aides, said that the Bush administration had 'fixed' the intelligence on Iraq and that war was inevitable. They said the memo was old, that the U.S. mobilization for war was widely reported at the time, that there was an initial distrust of a British press report. Some maintained that the memo didn't prove anything.
But Peter Hart of the liberal group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), which sent out several 'action alerts' urging members to contact news organizations, said, 'Any story that reminds readers that the political and journalistic establishments spectacularly failed on Iraq is a difficult story for the media to report.' Now, he said, in conjunction with groups such as MoveOn.org, 'activists have pushed this into the media, much to the chagrin of reporters, who have no love for getting e-mails constantly telling them to do the story.'"
Shame on US media. And Kurtz still doesn't get it, does he.
By Howard (call me Mistuh) Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 16, 2005; C01
For many liberals already frustrated with the media's coverage of President Bush, it has become a rallying cry over the past six weeks: What about the Downing Street memo?
Their anger, amplified by left-wing advocacy groups, columnists, bloggers and some Democrats in Congress, has gradually forced the mainstream media to take a second look at a document that received spotty coverage after it was reported May 1 by London's Sunday Times.
Journalists offered various explanations for the scant attention paid to the July 2002 British memo, which, in recounting a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top aides, said that the Bush administration had 'fixed' the intelligence on Iraq and that war was inevitable. They said the memo was old, that the U.S. mobilization for war was widely reported at the time, that there was an initial distrust of a British press report. Some maintained that the memo didn't prove anything.
But Peter Hart of the liberal group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), which sent out several 'action alerts' urging members to contact news organizations, said, 'Any story that reminds readers that the political and journalistic establishments spectacularly failed on Iraq is a difficult story for the media to report.' Now, he said, in conjunction with groups such as MoveOn.org, 'activists have pushed this into the media, much to the chagrin of reporters, who have no love for getting e-mails constantly telling them to do the story.'"
Shame on US media. And Kurtz still doesn't get it, does he.
posted by A. J. Franklin @ 13:34
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