Missing in Action: American Mainstream Media

by Larry Elder on Townhall.com

Back when our military failed to find stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, The New York Times apologized to its readers.

Why?

Before the war, the paper wrote article after article — relying on both government and non-government sources — that assumed the presence of stockpiles. Three of its reporters even wrote a book called “Germs,” in which they discussed Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological programs.

But when the stockpiles failed to appear, the paper felt used, manipulated by the “devious” Bush administration. It promised its readers greater skepticism, more scrutiny, and no more at-face-value acceptance of assertions by the Bush administration. “The problematic articles varied in authorship and subject matter,” wrote the Times in 2004, “but many shared a common feature. They depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on ‘regime change’ in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks. … Administration officials now acknowledge that they sometimes fell for misinformation from these exile sources. So did many news organizations — in particular, this one.” Quoth the Times, “Nevermore”!

But with hard-left Democratic President Barack Obama and large Democratic majorities running both the House and the Senate, the mainstream media — the ones that felt used and manipulated by the Bush administration — now purr like a contented kitten after a hearty meal.

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