Big News — I Mean BIG News — on Saddam's WMD is Coming Down the Road

That's my hunch right now.

First, the New York Times sort-of apologized back in May for not being more critical (yes, you read that right: not being more critical) of the Bush administration before the War Against Saddam Hussein. In case you missed it — O, how could you? ;-) — here's what I thought of that:

.... Why this? Why now? Well, we know this isn't soul searching. And we know it's not intellectual honesty. I mean, it's still the New York Times.

This is, if you'll pardon the expression, a pre-emptive strike. It's designed to provide a fig-leaf of cover when the Times willfully ignores and/or downplays upcoming evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction in or out of Iraq.

Which leads me to wonder, Faithful Reader, if NYT's editors don't have some inside information........

Today, the Washington Post gets into the act:

Days before the Iraq war began, veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus put together a story questioning whether the Bush administration had proof that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

But he ran into resistance from the paper's editors, and his piece ran only after assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, who was researching a book about the drive toward war, "helped sell the story," Pincus recalled. "Without him, it would have had a tough time getting into the paper." Even so, the article was relegated to Page A17.

"We did our job but we didn't do enough, and I blame myself mightily for not pushing harder," Woodward said in an interview. "We should have warned readers we had information that the basis for this was shakier" than widely believed. "Those are exactly the kind of statements that should be published on the front page."

As violence continues in postwar Iraq and U.S. forces have yet to discover any WMDs, some critics say the media, including The Washington Post, failed the country by not reporting more skeptically on President Bush's contentions during the run-up to war....

Yep. I think they know something we don't know, Faithful Reader. And they're not telling us. And they're going to question/impugn/downplay the news whenever it comes out. And they're offering their excuses now, ahead of time.

BTW, if lots of folks know something we don't know yet, it might help to explain why Kerry made the astonishing admission the other day that he would have voted to authorize the president to use military force against Saddam Hussein even if he had known Saddam had no WMD.

P.S. I hope I've not sounded too much like a conspiracy kook here. Especially at the end. Ack.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/12/04 08:32:03 AM
Categorized as Media.