A 6th Anniversary Look Back at Media Coverage of 'Mission Accomplished'

[Echo In Light]

A 6th Anniversary Look Back at Media Coverage of 'Mission Accomplished'
by Greg Mitchell

On May 1, 2003, Richard Perle advised, in a USA Today Op-Ed, "Relax, Celebrate Victory." The same day, exactly six years ago, President Bush, dressed in a flight suit, landed on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to major military operations in Iraq -- with the now-infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner arrayed behind him in the war's greatest photo op.

Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a "hero" and boomed, "He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics." He added: "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."

PBS' Gwen Ifill said Bush was "part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan." On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, "The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a -- on a carrier landing."

Bob Schieffer on CBS said: "As far as I'm concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time." His guest, Joe Klein, responded: "Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me."

Everyone agreed the Democrats and antiwar critics were now on the run.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/01-13

[Orrex]

1. And yet Matthews and Schieffer still have their apologists here on DU

Most people are clued-in to Ifill's silliness, though.


Thanks for posting!

[KharmaTrain]

3. I'll Give Tweety A Little Slack

Not much but little. He's a weathervane. At that time, the GOOP Mighty Wurlitzer was at its loudest. There still was was the "post 9/11" mentality in the corporate media that was coupled with their several week wargasm as their embeds raced with the tanks toward Baghdad. It was some grand adventure...a sales job that blew the weathervanes in their direction.

To his credit, Matthews never supported the Iraq invasion, however his "weathervane" always had the hots for boooshie. That was until the Plame affair. He was almost caught up in that fiasco and saw the dark side of this booooshian dream. His weathervane moved left afterwards.

The entire corporate media coverage of that invasion, the "Mission Accomplished" and their follow-up reporting on this ugly war for profit has been one of its darkest moments. One they want to forget, but we shouldn't.

[geckosfeet]

2. The fickleness of the MSM is legendary.

[lunatica]

4. I don't have words to describe the bitterness I feel

His war had already killed more innocent civilians than enemies. That so many people could have orgasms over the sock in the crotch strutting and smirking was a profoundly sad indicator of the American adolescent mentality that loves its war as if it were a video game. To hell with the immense tragedy Bush was perpetrating on everyone. The media had their war and its correspondingly manly crotch to adore.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. 4,000 deaths (US) later...

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. SOOOooo? Vietnam was 58,000 - and THEY didn't even have OIL!

.
.
.

And Ya don't think that the USA is gonna abandon that billion dollar fortress/embassy they built do ya?

And all the bases with airfields??

USA pounded Iraq with bombs and sanctions for a decade to weaken it, then invade it while the World watched.

Iraq is the USA's base in the Middle East;

it's 51st state.

they ain't leaving, no matter how many have to die.

(sigh)