CINDY SHEEHAN: It's about accountablility

Seattle area journalist David Neiwert on Sheehan's mainstream media critics. From Orcinus:

I mean, just how is it that the nation isn't really aware of the contents of the August 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Briefing? How is it that, nearly a year after both the 9/11 Commission Report and the Duelfer Report, most Americans still believe Iraq was connected to 9/11? How did it happen that a guy who certifiably skipped out on his military commitment was able to run a campaign that slandered his war-hero opponent's record? How is it that the Downing Street Memo is still just a rumor for most Americans?

I'll tell you how: Because the traditional media have completely fallen down on the job. The public isn't getting this information because guys like Robert Jamieson and his editors have decided they have, um, "other priorities."

Sure. While the threat of terrorism was building both at home and abroad in the late 1990s, these are the same folks who thought it worth the public's while to devote most of our attention to prurient allegations regarding the president's private life. Some priorities.

The song and dance continues: Michael Jackson. Scott and Laci Peterson. Robert Blake. Terri Schiavo. An endless circus of freak shows, bread and circus for the masses. Let's not be bothered by the inescapable reality that the United States invaded another nation under false pretenses, and almost certainly in violation of international law. Oh, and don't look over there at those photos from Abu Ghraib, either, or the reports out of Gitmo.

Click here for the rest.

In short, not a single mass media reporter has any right whatsoever to negatively criticize this woman. They bear almost as much responsibility for the quagmire in Iraq as Congress and the White House, perhaps more, because without their enabling propaganda in support of the invasion, the American public probably wouldn't have swallowed all the lies. Indeed, the press' responsibility was to debunk the lies, not spread them. This wasn't a journalistic failure: it was an assault on the nation itself, perhaps on the entire world. These guys are sick in the head.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$