|
by fairleft
As the Daily Howler wrote on Friday, it was a week for peering inside the dead souls of the U.S. media elite. And the most revealing two paragraphs came from the corporate media's least self-aware disinfotainer, Chris Matthews. Jealousy probably underlay the MSNBC Hardballer stating, immediately after hearing of boss Tim Russert's death, that Russert was the targeted dupe for the 'scary nukes' issue that Bush/Cheney used to get us into Iraq. Here's Matthews on Thursday, June 13 (emphasis added):
One other thing, and may be tricky to say this and I'll say it. When we went to war with Iraq, he and I had a little discussion about that and this is where he is every man. This is where Tim is Mr. or Miss America or Mrs. America. He is us as a country. I said, why--how can you believe this war is justified? And he said, "The nuclear thing. If they have a bomb that they can use, we've got to deal with. We can't walk away from that." In sum, Cheney felt that Russert was the key guy he had to dupe, and it couldn't have been easier: 'TRUST ME TIM, SADDAM'S GOT NUKES!' That's all: no push back, no inquiry, End of F-cking Story. The Howler quotes Matthews and adds (emphasis by fairleft):
Matthews, of course, is describing a private discussion. There's no proof that this discussion occurred . . . But did Russert really get played, as embellishments led us to war in Iraq? You don't have to rely on Matthews. Who can forget the embarrassing exchange Russert had with Bill Moyers, just last year? Had Russert been duped by the war machine? Fairly plainly, Moyers was asking--and as he answered, Russert made one of the most embarrassing statements a big journalist ever has made:
MOYERS (4/25/07): Critics point to September 8, 2002 and to your show in particular, as the classic case of how the press and the government became inseparable. Someone in the Administration plants a dramatic story in the New York Times [fairleft: the aluminum tubes were for nukes b.s.]. And then the Vice President comes on your show and points to the New York Times. It's a circular, self-confirming leak. Moyer's voice-over concludes:
Few journalists followed suit. And throughout the fall of 2002 high officials were repeating apocalyptic warnings with virtually no demand from the establishment press for evidence.
Iraq is just the most glaring example of how debased our political mass communications are now. And it's Russert and similar -- hell, it's practically Russert himself -- who have established and dominated our national political debate over the past 16 or so years. Unfortunately the new national conversation he and his have created -- of Gennifer Flowers, of blow-jobs and travel-gates, of Al Gore's untrustworthy clothing, of straight-talking Republicans, of 'tell me your favorite bible verse', of Hillary's got cooties -- has been a long national nightmare.
Chris Matthews: 'Tim was Mr. America of Iraq War Dupes' | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Chris Matthews: 'Tim was Mr. America of Iraq War Dupes' | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
|
Login
We listened to PEN American Center's "State of Emergency" and found 1940s books by Curzio Malaparte only at Alibris
|
||||||||||
Booman Tribune Homepage admin@boomantribune.com powered by Scoop 
More blogs about Blogs at Technorati.
|
||||||||||||
