Mis-Covering Clarke: 9/11 families & liberal critics not "in the club"

[G_j]

http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18265

Mis-Covering Clarke

By Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org
March 29, 2004

Please raise your hand if the name Richard Clarke rang a bell for you three weeks ago. How many of us knew who he was or what he did? And who among us can cite examples of TV stories or news commentators discussing in any detail his contention that the War on Iraq undermined the war on terror?

<snip>

More liberal critics or people who reject the Washington cold war foreign policy consensus are rarely heard or taken seriously. This is not new. It is only defectors from the right – such as Treasury Secretary O'Neil – that seem to be heard. Even Daniel Ellsberg, who gave us the Pentagon Papers, was seen as credible by the Beltway crowd because he'd worked for the Pentagon and Rand Corporation.


Before Clarke came forth, questions were being raised on hundreds of websites and by independent investigators and groups of 9/11 families, who were marginalized and for the most part ignored. (Take a look at 911 Citizen Watch for a sampling.) You have to be in "the club" to be taken seriously.


The irony, of course is that the hearings only took place because of the persistence of a handful of outsiders – for example, the activist wives of 9-11 victims who lobbied for the investigation but later walked out in disgust when many of their questions were sidelined
..more...

[bklyncowgirl]

1. Very True

Remember how Howard Dean was vilified for saying much the same thing? Clearly the man was a lunatic who knew nothing of foreign policy!

The foreign policy pros tend to march in lockstep. Now that Richard Clarke has come out of the groupspeak closet, it's become O.K. at least in some Democratic foreign policy circles to say these things out loud though I imagine that anyone who wants to remain "in the club" had better keep his thoughts to himself if he wants to remain gainfully employed and influential.

[G_j]

2. and the whole "we were wrong" deal

too bad the real "we" has been continually ignored.