After this important week, Newspaper Editors YAWN!!

[Sparkly]

I've been looking forward to today's Sunday editorials. I thought surely newspapers would take the opportunity to express opinions on the week's events. Beyond Sensenbrenner's silencing the minority in the meeting on the Patriot Act, why did they make it so difficult for Conyers to hold his hearing on the DSM? Why won't the White House answer the five questions he's posed? Why was the media virtually silent about the minutes until only recently? Why is support for the war now going down, down, down?

Could it be there's a COVER-UP at the White House?

Could it be that most Bush voters didn't know basic facts about Iraq last November, and now they're slowly getting information?

Could it be that Bush committed impeachable offenses and it's time for a federal prosecutor?

Could it be that the Republican party is willing to allow its president to get away with lying us into an unnecessary, bloody, costly war?

Could it be that the media is willing to allow its president to get away with the same by disserving Americans with drivel about runaway brides and Michael Jackson for ratings, or by following Rovian scripts about Durbin and Dean to cover its own ass?

It's unbelievable to me that the Washington Post, NY Times, and even Baltimore Sun today has NOTHING to say about this cover-up, NOTHING to say about obfuscation, silencing, ignoring, distracting, or LYING.

:argh:

[ooglymoogly]

1. welcome to the new reich

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Boston Globe: Sunday Ideas section DSM

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/06/19/downing_street_secrets/

More spin. Geoffrey Wheatcroft mentions that the minutes reported that the Bush administration is fixing the intelligence to show that Iraq poses an imminent threat. But dismisses this as a minor detail of no consequence. Wheatcroft neglects to inform that it is the chief of MI6 who is making the report, and he ought to know what he is talking about when it comes to 'fixing' intelligence.

"They do not quite damn the Bush administration to perdition, as Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and other congressional Democrats had been hoping to show at a public hearing held in the US Capitol on Thursday, but then nor do they bring much joy to the White House."

The theme of this piece of spin is that the memos show that Britain is a minor partner in the Cabal. No duh. Or, to put it in British: Brilliant!

Everyone in unison: 'the lies are old news, there were no lies'.

However, our local progressive hero Tom Oliphant, recently recovered from a serious illness, nails it in his editorial on the OPED page:

Conservative spin befuddles the media.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/19/conservative_spin_befuddles_the_media/

"WEAK IN THE face of The Great Conservative Attack Machine, two of America's more beleaguered institutions are now struggling with its equally ugly sibling, The Great Conservative Retreat Machine.

From pre-Iraq War British government memos to an autopsy report in Florida to the release of all the scraps of John Kerry's military records, conservatives are attempting to argue the opposite of what they recently claimed .

In the political world, the consensus is that it's working and that those beleaguered institutions, namely the news media and the Democratic Party, are once again flat-footed or worse.

The Bush administration insisted three years ago that war with Iraq was essential to halt Saddam Hussein's program developing weapons of mass destruction. Faced first with no evidence after the war and now with documents from Tony Blair's government detailing US hype, deception, and lack of preparedness for the war's aftermath, the same people are now using almost identical words to mask today's absurd realities."

[Logansquare]

3. Many Sunday editorials were already written on Thursday

Monday will be the true test.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. I'm sorry but that is lame.

The hearings were well publicized in advance. The minutes have been out there for almost two months.

We have almost total censorship (the 21st century Madison Ave New Improved Censorship) at this point. The administration has been caught lying about WMD in order to deceive congress and obtain authorization for the war. This is most certainly a 'high crime and misdemeanor' worthy of impeachment, it most likely amounts to treason, and our illegal attack on Iraq is simply a war crime. The MSM yawns, ignores, lies, distracts, avoids and deflects: anything to not tell the truth. Tens of thousands have died. The administration must be held accountable.

[Logansquare]

5. According to the sources I've read, it ain't news until AP covers it

Most newspapers wait passively for the wires to cover it, and AP "dropped the ball" on covering the DSM, as they admitted. Whether they were pressured to do so is the main question; I would guess "yes." AP has published five stories on this since Friday, and I will wait 'til Monday to make a judgement of individual newspapers and whether they editorialize about the wires. I don't give a pass to NYT or WP, who should be ashamed of themselves, anyway.

Now, young person (I'm presuming you aren't an old fogey like me), the Watergate story languished for several months before picking up steam. And that was back when we still had newspapers who weren't owned by giant media conglomerates! Patience...continue to apply steady relentless pressure.