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10 February 2004

Media Patrol


Michael Massing offers a devastating critique of pre-war reporting -- especially by the New York Times -- on Iraq's alleged WMD: "Despite abundant evidence of the administration's brazen misuse of intelligence in this matter, the press repeatedly let officials get away with it. As journalists rush to chronicle the administration's failings on Iraq, they should pay some attention to their own."

The Washington Post reports -- on page A17 -- that not only did President Bush and his top advisers ignore many of the caveats and qualifiers included in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, "In fact, they made some of their most unequivocal assertions" about Iraq's unconventional
weapons before the report was completed.

Under fire for claiming that Iraq posed an imminent threat, President Bush said during his "Meet the Press" interview, that he must deal with threats "before they become imminent."

The Center for American Progress annotates the interview transcript and takes issue with 17 assertions that Bush made, in a "Claim vs. Fact" analysis. Plus: Numbers counts for "terror" and "terrorist" and "war" and "peace."

Peggy Noonan says Bush's performance was "not impressive" because he "cannot remember talking points." Calpundit rounds up reaction to the interview by other conservative commentators, one of whom observes that "If he loses this year, this will be the day he lost it"

Calpundit also looks into Bush's military service records, solving one mystery and uncovering a new one involving Bush's possible transfer to a "paper unit" in Denver for disciplinary reasons.

Slate's William Saletan writes that "The joke is that Bush accomplished exactly what he set out to do in this interview: He showed you how his mind works."

Joshua Claybourn says Bush was being "deceptive and false" when he claimed that discretionary spending has declined steadily under his administration. Introducing Claybourn's analysis, Andrew Sullivan writes that on the budget, Bush is either "frighteningly unaware" or "lying."

In a brief history of 'Bush family values,' Kevin Phillips says that while "They know what they're in politics for," their problem is that "The American people are also starting to find out." Plus: Paul Krugman reviews Phillips' "American Dynasty" and Ron Suskind's "The Price of Loyalty."

The Revision Thing On the same day that Bush told Tim Russert that Saddam "had the ability to make weapons at the very minimum," Vice President Cheney told a group of Republican donors that Saddam "had the intent to arm his regime with weapons of mass destruction."

That's the Ticket? Jim Lobe on the day that Cheney 'was rocked to the core,' and Newsweek examines 'A problem in the bunker.'

Cheney's Bubble "Whatever one might say about the rarefied air of the World Economic Forum," writes Orville Schell, "no one in the Davos bubble is in an individual bubble as well -- or at least that was true until Vice President Dick Cheney descended on Davos." Earlier: Davos presenter puts America on the couch. The prognosis?

The Observer reports that Great Britain helped the U.S. spy on other U.N. Security Council members prior to Secretary of State Powell's U.N. presentation.

Brendan O'Neill asks "what if Iraq did have WMD? What if the coalition does discover some old but potentially lethal stockpiles of mustard gas, carefully hidden away? What if it had been true that Saddam was building a nuclear bomb?... Would the war have been justified then?"

The Independent reports that Iraq Body Count's high-end estimate of civilian deaths has surpassed 10,000, a milestone that is getting little play in the U.S.A.

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld blames "shocking" media coverage for harming America's image in the world, and blames Al-Jazeera for "causing Iraqi people to be killed."

Clips Clipped? Senior Pentagon managers are said to have repeatedly ordered the department's clipping service to exclude articles critical of the military and Rumsfeld.

Stars and Stripes reports that the Pentagon has ordered an investigation after almost 90 reports of sexual assault among troops in Kuwait and Iraq.

The New York Times reports on white collar killings in Iraq, where government officials estimate that hundreds of intellectuals and midlevel administrators have been assassinated since May in a "widening campaign" against the country's professional class.

An AP article on the hunt for Saddam's money, notes that while the U.S. may have found $300 million that he hid in banks, the amount is nowhere his estimated stash of $40 billion.
Officials cite "weak U.S. intelligence and slow-moving investigators" for allowing "insurgents time to empty accounts and transfer funds."

The Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, says that Al-Qaeda has possessed suitcase-sized tactical nuclear weapons since 1998.

The AP reports that on the day a ricin scare closed Senate offices, President Bush asked Congress to end a research program on how to get toxins out of buildings.

TV news execs respond to their incessant showing of Howard Dean's "scream" clip, which the political newsletter Hotline says was aired on cable and broadcast news networks 633 times in four days, even though an ABC report showed that the "scream" was barely audible to Dean's live audience.

A Globe and Mail columnist speculates on why the 'media disappeared Dean.'

A soccer crowd in Mexico chanted "Osama! Osama! Osama!" as the U.S. team left the field after defeating Canada.