There must be a lot of people besides me who remember the presidential campaign of 1992 as victory for a liberal press. "It's the economy, stupid" was the rallying cry and the strategy - a remarkable strategy because the economy was in recovery. But as we watched, Bush 41 went from about a 90% approval rating in 1991 to about 20% in 1992. What happened? Or perhaps the better question would be, what didn't happen? One thing that didn't happen was news about the recovery. There was no hint. Until immediately after the election. Then the new day dawned, the Clintons were on their way to the White House, the sun suddenly and gloriously appeared, the GDP surged upward, and Fleetwood Mac sang "Don't stop Thinking About Tomorrow".
So for months what we've been watching is the press trying to replay their successes of the 1992 presidential campaign by reporting bad economic news, bad news from Iraq, bad news on all fronts. But something hasn't been resonating. That's partly because John Kerry is such an awful candidate. Even the people that like him (meaning those who plan to vote for him) don't really like him. So the press has to pull out all the stops to get him elected. Now, it's not enough just to let good news go unreported, nor is it sufficient to simply report on the bad. Now the press is actually misrepresenting the news. Witness the 9/11 Commission staff report. Headlines blare (I just mistyped that "headlies" - closer to the mark, I suppose) "9/11 panel sees no link between Iraq, al-Qaida" and "No Evidence Connecting Iraq to Al Qaeda". Unfortunately, that's not what the commission said. They said "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."
There is a distinction. Both the chairman and the vice chairman agreed that there were many contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq, and they said so on the NPR. THOMAS KEAN: Well, first of all, this is a staff report. It's not the report of the commission or the commissioners as yet. But the staff in their investigation has found that, yes, there were contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida, a number of them, some of them a little shadowy. They were definitely there.
LEE HAMILTON: I don't think there's any doubt but that there were some contacts between Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's people. But our finding relates to a collaborative effort, the lack of evidence for a collaborative effort to attack the United States. We're not saying that there were no contacts of any kind or description.
That makes sense. That was their charter, to investigate 9/11 not the war on terror. And in this article Andrew McCarthy a former prosecutor of terrorists lists specific contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda, and he raises the issue of a George Tenet's letter to Bob Graham chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which states: We have solid reporting of senior level contacts between Iraq and al-Qa'ida going back a decade.
Credible information indicates that Iraq and al-Qa'ida have discussed safe haven and reciprocal non-aggression.
Since Operation Enduring Freedom, we have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qa'ida members, including some that have been in Baghdad.
We have credible reporting that al-Qa'ida leaders sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire WMD capabilities. The reporting also stated that Iraq has provided training to al-Qa'ida members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs.
Iraq's increasing support to extremist Palestinians, coupled with growing indications of a relationship with al- Qa'ida, suggest that Baghdad's links to terrorists will increase, even absent US military action.
Still the press ignores this and misrepresents the commission report to say there is no connection between Iraq and al Qaida. They've begun to ignore the news on the economic front, now that job growth is following GDP growth. But this time, will it be enough to get their man elected? Maybe, maybe not, but this time it won't be so easy. There are those bloggers out there who are quick to blow the whistle. The media, however, will press on, bad pun intended. They have a history of misrepresenting the news to fit their world view, and there's no reason to suspect they'll stop now. Hell, they award themselves prizes for it.
Speaking of Russia, here's another little fly in the ointment for those who insist Iraq was no threat. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin reveals that he warned us about Saddam.
Comments