British memo grows in mythology, if not in media

[soup]

British memo grows in mythology, if not in media

Among antiwar advocates, the Downing Street Memo has caused an uproar. Among the media, it reads like old news.

By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN, Times Senior Correspondent
Published June 26, 2005

It's actually the minutes of a meeting, not a "memo." And among hundreds of words, just 10 jump out.

But apart from the steadily rising body count in Iraq, few things have so galvanized American antiwar sentiment as the so-called Downing Street Memo.

Disclosed May 1 by London's Sunday Times, the memo outlines a meeting July 23, 2002, at the residence of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The head of British intelligence, fresh from talks in Washington, tells Blair that President Bush is determined to remove Saddam Hussein and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Dated nine months before the invasion, the memo quickly became big news in Britain, where critics said it proved Bush planned to go to war regardless of whether Hussein truly posed a threat. The furor hurt Blair, the president's staunchest ally, and contributed to the poorer-than-expected showing of the Labor Party in the May 5 British elections.

On this side of the Atlantic, though, the Downing Street Memo hit with a poof, not a bang. Most news organizations all but ignored it, to the outrage of readers and bloggers who have swamped the St. Petersburg Times and other media with demands for greater coverage.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/26/Worldandnation/British_memo_grows_in.shtml

[wakeme2008]

1. For you non St. Pete Times ppl

Susan is a real reporter and has been traveling the middle east for around 3 years doing real reports for the St. Pete Times.

[soup]

3. It's the second tab I open every morning.

DU
St Pete Times
Icasualties
etc.

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Thought this was a particularly good article. Does a bit of media CYA over the DSM, but takes a fair look at the coverage and mentions quite a few sources, including www.downingstreetmemo.com

Was Susan Taylor Martin the woman who was blogging from the middle east last year? I seem to remember a series, but no details. - information overload and faulty wiring - not a good combination here - *sigh.

[wakeme2008]

10. she did a Iraq and Afgan series that I remember nt

[Skittles]

2. it wouldnot have hit with a "poof" if a Democratic president was in office

no INDEED

[soup]

5. Agree. The tar would have been boiling

and the feathers gathered.

[Straight Shooter]

6. That's academic, though. There'd be no DSM with a Democratic president.

Does anyone on earth actually believe that Gore would have invaded Iraq? After all, Saddam didn't try to kill his "daddy." :eyes:

I believe we wouldn't have been attacked by *cough* al Qaeda on September 11, 2001.

Gore is also a strong advocate of alternative energy. No, this is the Republican way of doing things:

1. Take what you want
2. Let others sacrifice
3. Coverup, coverup, coverup

As for the media, the bush administration has them under their thumbs now, but eventually they'll smell the blood in the water. Then maybe, finally, we'll begin to see some poetic justice, although we'll never see the real justice that the dead and maimed deserve.

[Kahuna]

4. Her email is linked in the story. Please take a minute to thank her.

She rocks!

[Patty Diana]

7. This google search shows just HOW MUCH it IS in the news

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=downing+street+memo&btnG=Search Results 1 - 10 of about 1,860,000 for downing street memo. (0.05 seconds)

[ScamUSA.Com]

12. a more accurate news comparison would be:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=downing+street+memo

2750 results for Downing Street Memo

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=tom+cruise

7770 results for Tom Cruise

[Pirate Smile]

8. "media responds to what the political establishment is doing"

"I think it re-emphasizes the point about how the media responds to what the political establishment is doing. Since the Democratic Party leadership has decided to take a much stronger stance on Downing Street, Guantanamo and other issues . . . within the Bush White House, that precisely is why there is more coverage."

It could also be that editors are reacting to the torrent of e-mails, letters and phone calls from readers convinced the media aren't doing enough on the memo and a related document. That one, a British briefing paper leaked this month, says that Blair and Bush had decided to go to war by early 2002 but that "it was necessary to create the conditions" that would make it legal.

Activists seeking greater coverage of the leaked documents are extremely well-organized. They have a Web site - www.downingstreetmemo.com - that includes a daily "target" list of editors to call this month. Friday's targets: the Detroit News, San Antonio Express News and Reno Gazette-Journal.

"We were just incredulous that nobody in the U.S. was picking up on this," says Gina Fesmire, a Sunnyvale, Calif., Web designer who started the site with a Chicago area law student and a Canadian government employee. "The documents speak for themselves - the public needs to know about them."'

[soup]

9. thank you for adding that, Pirate Smile.

darn copyright rules.

Quite often the most important bits come out last in news articles.

>>It could also be that editors are reacting to the torrent of e-mails, letters and phone calls from readers convinced the media aren't doing enough on the memo and a related document.<<

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Seems a little backwards, doesn't it? Shouldn't the readers be reacting to the news that IS reported instead of the other way around?

[Pirate Smile]

11. Everything is screwed up. News is entertainment and entertainment is news