Moyers and the Media Report

I just watched my tivoed copy of the Bill Moyer’s report on the failure of the national media in the run-up to war: Buying the War

I have to say, it makes you sick to your stomach.

To hear Dan Rather talk about how scary it is in the newsrooms to contemplate going against the prevailing judgment is to be scared all over again. Even these guys from the “Greatest Generation” have forgotten how to be courageous.

There were plenty of us in the fall of 2002 who didn’t believe what was pouring out on the front pages. There were plenty of us reading the inside articles that maybe the aluminum tubes weren’t for nuclear work. There were plenty of us who were not all nervous and trembly in love when Colin Powell covered himself with infamy. We were NOT, as Mr. Rather says he was, mighty impressed. There was a god damned opposition to the drum beaters and the D.C. press couldn’t get up to listen, embarrassed I think that their wet backsides would show….

There were damn few heroes in the Moyers’ story but Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel and John Wolcott of Knight-Ridder deserve our praise and admiration. We should all be watching for Landay and Strobel’s by-lines. We should, it goes without saying, be supporting the growing and vibrant voices, skeptical of power and scripted narratives, on the Internet.