SPEAKING ILL OF THE DEAD

From osama husseini courtesy of This Modern World:

How Russert et al Planted the Seeds for War

The survivors of those killed in the U.S.'s war in Iraq since the 2003 invasion cannot simply blame Bush. Under the guise of "tough journalism" Russert and others disseminated lies and built the case for invasion even before Bush got to the White House. A letter I sent to Russert tells a slice of the story:

And

You now have a serious obligation to correct these errors. Iraq did not throw out the weapons inspectors. Butler did it, apparently at the administration's behest. This is important since it sets the terms of how the new inspections regime should be viewed.

It's noteworthy that a sophisticated, experienced journalist like yourself could get so sucked into the cliche of Iraq as aggressor/U.S. as victim that how the administration launched "Desert Fox" is forgotten. It's a case study in the conventional wisdom trumping the facts. I hope to hear from you shortly so that we can rectify this matter.

More here.

Yeah, this was an enormous myth being bounced around during the run up to the invasion. Journalists, Congressmen, and White House officials kept humming the mantra "Saddam kicked out the weapons inspectors." Of course, that never happened. The US pulled them out so Clinton could start bombing Iraq while impeachment proceedings against him began in the House.

Tim Russert engaged in a lot of power-enabling bullshit during his tenure on Meet the Press.

I mean, look. There's evil and then there's evil. When Jerry Falwell died last year, I danced a jig--Falwell was a rub-your-face-in-it prick, pushing dangerous ideas and lies from an authoritative position, happily condemning good people on a regular basis. Russert wasn't an asshole, but, like Falwell, he definitely pushed dangerous ideas and lies from an authoritative position, again and again.

Here, check out this search of FAIR's website for the keywords "Tim" and "Russert," and you'll see what I'm talking about.

To be fair, Russert was really no better or worse than any of his high dollar TV press colleagues, but that doesn't make him innocent. Russert, Rather, Brokaw, Jennings, all those guys, it's the same thing: too close to power to really be able to criticize it, too caught up in Washington's inside the beltway herd-think to come up with any original ideas. Ultimately, they're all nothing more than siphons for corporate and government PR. More often than not, that makes them liars, and worse, enablers of profound injustice.

Like the war in Iraq. Or the health care crisis. Or poverty.

I'm not particularly glad that Russert's gone, no jig dancing this time around; he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. But President Bush appears to be a nice guy, too. And that's no defense when tens of thousands of people lie dead because of your actions. We couldn't have started this awful war without Russert's aid. He's responsible.

The really sad thing is that he's just going to be replaced by another corporate media clone who's going to do exactly the same thing.

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