I’ll be darned: they did it! Every news editor’s dropping in some boilerplate about “the long-awaited Phase II of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report…” but does that even begin to cover it? Long awaited is a post-steakhouse bowel movement. Long awaited is the new Rush album. This is several fucking years too late, guys. But, hey, given that I salute the timing; might as well drop this baby in an election year. I only wonder if it’ll get a hundredth the coverage the gleamingly whitewashed Phase I did. Just kidding, I don’t wonder at all. Compare and contrast these headlines, and see if you can guess which is the paper of record, and which is a certain mid-market & below wire service that got everything right in the run-up to war and was nigh-universally ignored:
Senate committee: Bush knew Iraq statements were untrue
Ooooor on the other hand:
Senate Panel Finds Iraq Intelligence Exaggerations
Yeah, I knew you could guess. The Times article is a travesty through-and-through, of course:
But the report found that on several key issues, including Iraq’s alleged nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs, public statements from Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and other top officials before the war were generally “substantiated” by the best estimates of the intelligence agencies, though the statements did not always reflect the agencies’ uncertainty about the evidence.
O RLY? Take it, ‘Clatch:
Among the reports (sic) conclusions:
[...]The president and vice president misrepresented what was known about Iraq’s chemical weapons capabiliies.
Fresh. Based on the available evidence, I look forward to a full week of coverage on whether Michelle Obama was being racist when she ate cheese and crackers at a campaign event this week. Every bit of confirmation that crrrrrrazy war opponents were right in every detail makes my bitterness and anger that much more self-righteous, though; what else could I ask for?
June 5, 2008 at 10:58 am
Is Phase III still Profit? It’s good to keep ahead of these things.
June 5, 2008 at 10:59 am
For somebody, undoubtedly.
June 5, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Shit, I feel like I did when I first saw Billmon’s posts that (simply) contrasted quotes from the same person over time, and if memory serves also had a few headlines to boot. The power of those posts is and was immense.
This is a winner! Its a great format for a post; once defined well the elements are relatively easy to gather.
Hammering the sad, sad NYT, (simply) by quoting the Clatch. Simplicity defined.
Let it so be understood, and let it be replicated robustly.
June 5, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Word.
June 5, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Now all we gotta do is prove Cheney actually INTENDED these consequences.
I’ll not deny there’s a foucaultian quantum missing there.
we may ‘know’ that either Cheney “intended” those consequences, or he’s a complete moron. Unfortunately, there is no way to rule out that possibility…
June 5, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Ah, damn, that reminds me of the single greatest headline in poorman history “Phase II Is Where You Go Fuck Yourself.” That was the truest, most prescient remark the internet has ever been responsible for. It deserves to be enshrined in one of those notable quotable books.
June 9, 2008 at 10:27 am
yahoo linked to a reuters article on the report from the main page. reuters headline involved “bush misused intelligence blah blah”…yahoo main page headline: “bush misstated threat.” there’s no difference i hear!
June 10, 2008 at 8:01 pm
WHO CONTROLS THE MEDIA
I think the media is owned and or controLled by the same group that wants to stay in power. The will or wants of the majority of the American people are secondary to the goal of the controlling elite. The media is a tool they use to convince the public to support thier agenda. Example: All tv and radio stations are owned by someone. Who ever that is has control over the content and views of its comentators. Who ever controls the flow of information also controls what most people believe. So for example: Bush was trying to get every one to support him in his efforts to invade Iraq and many people were against it including the U.N. and many other countries. Anyone that protested his desicion were demonized, accussed of being anti American, unpatiotic, and publicly portrayed by the media as the vilian. If I remember correctly some comentators were even fired for voicing thier opinion against going to war. Many of the politicians who actualy disagreed with going to war, were afraid they would be portrayed as being unamerican if they voted against it. Afraid that the media would demonize them and destroy thier political carriers.
I also remember when Bush was running for office and the media said he was loosing, he said he had some friends in the media, made a phone call, and before my eyes the media changed thier position.
WHO HAS THE POWER TO CONTROL THE MEDIA ? AND WHAT IS THIER AGENDA ?
Thanks
SCORPI2000
June 11, 2008 at 11:29 pm
[...] Politics, Republicans | ≅ Amazon.com Widgets Eric Martin at Obsidian Wings: While the blogs are doing a pretty good job of circulating the information confirmed by Phase II of the Senate [...]