USA TODAY explains why it didn't cover the Downing St. Minutes

[BigBearJohn]

'Downing Street memo' gets fresh attention

USA TODAY chose not to publish anything about the memo before today for several reasons, says Jim Cox, the newspaper's senior assignment editor for foreign news. "We could not obtain the memo or a copy of it from a reliable source," Cox says. "There was no explicit confirmation of its authenticity from (Blair's office). And it was disclosed four days before the British elections, raising concerns about the timing."

A simmering controversy over whether American media have ignored a secret British memo about how President Bush built his case for war with Iraq bubbled over into the White House on Tuesday.

At a late afternoon news conference, Reuters correspondent Steve Holland asked Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair about a memo that's been widely written about and discussed in Europe but less so in the USA.

It was the most attention paid by the media in the USA so far to the "Downing Street memo," first reported on May 1 by The Sunday Times of London. The memo is said by some of the president's sharpest critics, such as Democratic Rep. John Conyers (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, to be strong evidence that Bush decided to go to war and then looked for evidence to support his decision.

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20050608/pl_usatoday/downingstreetmemogetsfreshattention

[MrModerate]

1. Right. And the dog ate their homework, too. n/t

[DrDebug]

2. So we are not going to publish if the government didn't send it

[mzmolly]

3. The good news is they are making "excuses" recommended!

:hi:

[geomon666]

4. What a farce.

It's funny how I have a copy of it but USAToday doesn't. Yeah pull the other one.

[Imagevision]

5. Oh! - how mighty white of them ...hhahahahahahaha....

[rox63]

6. I guess they consider the London Times a trashy tabloid?

I guess the London Times should be shaking in their boots. Oh no, USA Today doesn't think we're reliable! Whatever will we do???

[Rob H.]

7. USA Today is owned by Gannett

They're an enormous corporate media octopus with their tentacles in everything from radio to TV to magazines to newspapers, so you can probably guess that they love Bush and his willingness to relax media ownership rules. They also downplayed the results of the recount of the 2000 election.

They also know they'd better continue to kowtow to the current administration if they want their rampage down Easy Street to continue. Never expect them to say anything negative about the Bushies!

[dogday]

8. That's Pronounced U Ass A

now that's better.....

[Marnieworld]

9. Quick! Somebody get to USAToday headquarters

They need one of those free AOL cds to get on the internets. There's all sorts of stuff to learn when you are navel gazing.

[Marnieworld]

10. Quick! Somebody get to USAToday headquarters

They need one of those free AOL cds to get on the internets. There's all sorts of stuff to learn when you are navel gazing.