Bush's Misinformation?

I could n’t sleep last night and sat listening to Radio 5 live at about 3.30.

I chanced upon an interview which sought to place the rush to invade Iraq firmly at the door of the press who were according to the interviewee, guilty of not providing checks and balance for the arguments.

Fully awake,I used the listen again service to make sure that I was n’t dreaming.

First of all we are talking about the American Press.The interview was with Frank Rich of the New Yorker magazine.

There are two sides to the story.First of all the Bush administration ,according to Rich ,had the express purpose of selling misinformation to the Press.An unnamed source,possibly Karl Rove,was briefing journalists in 2002 that the administration intended to set the reality and the press' job was simply to report it.

The press though is not blameless.Rich describes that "much of the damning truth was publicity available but widely ignored."

The Press were swept along by what he terms "jingoistic post 9/11 euphoria".They were afraid of challenging an administration that was at that time so popular.They thus,failed,apart from a "few pockets of resistance "to resume scepticism.

This atmosphere continues today.Cnn has dedicated more coverage to Anna Nichol Smith than Bush's state of the union address when he announced the Baghdad surge.