Brent Budowsky: Bill Moyers on Media and Iraq: When Lies Become Truth, Soldiers Die

[babylonsister]

Bill Moyers on Media and Iraq: When Lies Become Truth, Soldiers Die
by Brent Budowsky | Apr 26 2007


On Christopher Lydon’s radio show, several journalists recounted their recent dinner with David Halberstam shortly before his death.

Halberstam was mournful at the decline of the media in the days of Iraq, remembering how he and others warned the nation, and their readers, in the early days of the Vietnam War.

Bill Moyers reports the story well in his PBS special about the media and Iraq.

When it mattered, in 2002 and 2003, virtually the entire American major media covered Iraq the way Pravda covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They jumped on what they believed was the winning side politically, maintained their insider power base, and sustained the high income that would have been threatened if they reported the truth.

The front page of the New York Times became the propaganda vehicle for neoconservative theory and lies threatening mushroom clouds. Within hours, Tim Russert sat meekly while Dick Cheney repeated the neoconservative talking points with dire words “On Meet The Press,” quoting the New York Times, which had printed the talking points.

Meanwhile, Tom Friedman of the Times, with an excited tone of voice, championed the Iraq war as a wonderful moment to remake the Middle East, allegedly his field of expertise. When it didn’t work at first, he said the next six months were crucial. A year later, he said the next six months were crucial. Now he says he was warning everybody all along how hard it would be.

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[Briar]

1. Much worse than that

Some 650,000 Iraqis have died.

[babylonsister]

2. Much worse than that:

650,000+ was the number of dead Iraqis identified by the Lancet Report months ago. Who knows how many more now?:-(