Bush: snooze before news

Oct 26, 2003

Why Are We Back in Vietnam? I’m still not used to Frank Rich’s columns showing up on the Arts page of the Sunday Times, but hey, no matter the real estate, he writes about some hot issues. Today’s column is about the Bush Administration’s mistruths – I’ve long contended that Bush and his posse are first and foremost disingenuous – and more importantly, the U.S. media being asleep at the wheel.

This is objective journalism as this administration likes it, all right � news you can’t use. Until recently, the administration had often gotten what it wanted, especially on television, and not just on afternoon talk shows. From 9/11 through the fall of Saddam, the obsequiousness became so thick that even Terry Moran, the ABC News White House correspondent, said his colleagues looked “like zombies” during the notorious pre-shock-and-awe Bush news conference of March 6, 2003. That was the one that Mr. Bush himself called “scripted.” The script included eight different instances in which he implied that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, all of them left unchallenged by the dozens of reporters at hand.

What do you think? Is Bush believable? Are the national newspapers and networks covering the administration well? Is your local media?

Anton Zuiker ☄