FAIR: One Year Later, Sunday Shows Short on Iraq Critics

[G_j]

http://www.fair.org/activism/iraq-anniversary.html

ACTION ALERT:
One Year Later, Sunday Shows Short on Iraq Critics
March 15, 2004

A year after the invasion of Iraq began, the Sunday morning interview shows all focused on the anniversary. But viewers would have had a hard time finding a debate on the controversial decision.
ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos featured an interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was also the sole guest on Fox News Sunday. CBS's Face the Nation featured Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as well as pro-war New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

Only NBC's Meet the Press showcased competing perspectives, with separate interviews with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, a critic of the Bush administration's handling of the war.

The one-year anniversary of the start of the war provided an opportunity for the networks to reflect on pre-war claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the occupation of Iraq, and the global effect the war has had so far. But a meaningful debate about such matters would have to include forceful critics of the Bush administration.

Instead, the networks' Sunday shows mostly sought out the same administration officials who were responsible for much of the pre-war misinformation. If anything, the interviews served as a reminder of just how little scrutiny the media gave to administration claims about Iraq before the invasion. (See FAIR's "A Failure of Skepticism in Powell Coverage," http://www.fair.org/press-releases/un-powell-iraq.html
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ACTION:
Please contact the Sunday morning news shows of ABC, CBS and Fox and ask them why, on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, they featured one-on-one interviews with top administration officials, while excluding critical voices. Please thank NBC's Meet the Press for including a Bush administration critic in its invasion retrospective, and encourage the inclusion of more critics in discussions of Iraq.

CONTACT:

ABC's This Week
[e-mail]

CBS Face the Nation
[e-mail]

NBC's Meet the Press
[e-mail]

Fox News Sunday
[e-mail]

As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc [e-mail] with your correspondence.

[truthspeaker]

1. composing an email now

Hans Blix is only getting coverage because he's promoting a book. I haven't seen hide nor hair of Scott Ritter on national TV in ages.

[G_j]

4. Speaking of Blix

he'll be on NPR's "Fresh Air" Wed. It should be good.

[BabsSong]

2. Exactly the impression I got

It looks like this is "kick off point" for the Bush campaign, prepared in advance with the networks. Great time to dust off those flags and wave them. Great time to not mention "democrats" and Kerry. Great time to wash out of America's brain all that stuff the Dems planted into those brains during primary campaign season. Actually, I assume in one form or another on one subject or another, this kind of blanket propaganda will occur at least every two months until November.

[G_j]

3. and where is the story

on their own lack of critical reporting before the war? Many journalists have candidly admitted to this since.