THE WAR & THE STATE OF JOURNALISM
 
Before the war, the Bush-Cheney administration made numerous
preposterous claims about the imminent threat posed by Iraq that for
the most part turned out to be false. After its doomsday assertions
were proven to be false, amazingly and with a straight face, the
administration began to advance with what amounted to be denials about
having made such claims.
 
More amazingly, the mainstream media generally accepted and continues
to accept the administration's denials and half-truths.
 
Shortly after the administration's lies were exposed, it also began to
change the meaning of words to adjust its absurd arguments. For
example, it claimed never to have argued that the threat from Iraq was
imminent. It also began to rewrite history, claiming that Iraq was not
a war of choice; that it was forced to go to war primarily because
Iraq refused to let the UN inspectors into their country. It also
asserted that the war was duly authorized by the United Nations and
that it was part of the "war on terror."
 
Administration officials continue to parse and mince words to convince
us that we have won the war or that winning and success are just right
around the corner and if there are any failures, blame should be laid
at the feet of Democrats who refuse to support the troops – despite
the nearly 1 trillion dollars already allocated by Congress. Even more
absurdly, the administration has been advancing similar arguments
about Iran, even after the U.S. Intelligence community has concluded
that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.
 
If this were baseball, the administration would be in the midst of a
severe 5-year losing season and the fans would be demanding the
manager's resignation, plus their money back.
 
In this case, the owner/manager (the president) has refused to fire
anyone, until it has been inconsequential, and he himself continues at
the nation's helm, despite a vote of no-confidence by the electorate
in 2006. Actually, he has fired generals that disagree with him so as
to be able to claim that he is listening to the generals on the ground
(the ones he hasn't fired). Congress has been no help on this matter.
But the real issue today is the role of the media; the industry has
not generally challenged the administration's view that the "success"
of the so-called "surge" constitutes "Mission Accomplished II." The
mainstream media has failed to note that the success or failure of a
tactic within an illegal war cannot make the war legal, moral or
justifiable – especially when U.S. troops keep dying and thousands of
Iraqis continue to be slaughtered and displaced.
 
In all this, with a few notable exceptions, most mainstream
journalists and pundits have acted not simply as stenographers, but
cheerleaders as well.
 
To better contextualize this anomaly, perhaps more analogies are required:
 
• If a district attorney were unable to win any murder convictions,
the D.A. would soon be shown the door.
• If a doctor were constantly misdiagnosing patients, prescribing the
wrong medicine and losing all his/her patients, the doctor would soon
be losing his/her license. Might even end up in jail.
• If a mechanic were unable to fix cars and causing continual
accidents, the mechanic would soon be on the unemployment line.
• If a cook kept burning the food or sending diners to the hospital,
the cook would be out of a job and the restaurant would be out of
business.
• If a construction firm continually built unsafe buildings or
bridges, the firm would promptly be confined to building paper
airplanes.
• If an airline's pilots kept getting drunk, were always late and
continually missing the landing strip, the pilots would no longer be
flying planes and the airline would soon be out of business.
• If police officers kept raiding the wrong houses, causing continual
loss of innocent life, and if the Chief of Police condoned this, no
doubt the mayor and the public would be calling for resignations and
major reform.
 
Most professions self-correct with no need for regulations. Even in
the journalism profession, when scandals have arisen (plagiarism),
publishers have been quick to give writers and editors the boot. Yet.
In the case of the war, the exact opposite has occurred. The more
wrong the writers and analysts have been, the higher they've been
promoted.
 
For a profession that has professed a commitment to merit – often seen
as the antithesis of affirmative action – this continues to send out
the wrong message: when it comes to war, the only thing that seemingly
matters is not truth or accuracy, but winning one for "the decider."
 
(c) Column of the Americas 2008