War-Loving Pundits

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Thursday, March 16, 2006 by CommonDreams.org

War-Loving Pundits

By Norman Solomon

The third anniversary of the Iraq invasion is bound to attract a lot of media coverage, but scant recognition will go to the pundits who helped to make it all possible.

<snip>

One of the most gleeful commentators on network television was MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews. “We’re all neo-cons now,” he crowed on April 9, 2003, hours after a Saddam Hussein statue tumbled in Baghdad.

Weeks later, Matthews was still at it, making categorical declarations: “We’re proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who’s physical, who’s not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who’s president. Women like a guy who’s president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It’s simple.”

Simplistic was more like it. And, in the rush of stateside enthusiasm for war on Iraq, centrist pundits like Matthews -- apt to sway with the prevailing wind -- were hardly inclined to buck the jingoistic storm.

Pseudo-patriotic hot air remained at gale force on Fox News Channel, still blowing strong. “Tommy Franks and the coalition forces have demonstrated the old axiom that boldness on the battlefield produces swift and relatively bloodless victory,” Tony Snow told viewers in late April. “The three-week swing through Iraq has utterly shattered skeptics’ complaints.”

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0316-35.htm

[Skittles]

1. it makes me sick thinking about it

I hope history judges these pieces of shit harshly