Editorial pages turn on war: Newspapers in liberal, conservative states say bring troops home

[DeepModem Mom]

The Politico: Editorial pages turn on war
By: Alicia C. Shepard
Jul 31, 2007

With painstaking deliberation and some reluctance, one by one, newspapers in both liberal and conservative states have begun calling for President Bush to bring home the troops.

These carefully considered editorials don't usually mention a date or a troop number for withdrawal. But none are willing to give President Bush more chances, nor do they support waiting until September, when Army Gen. David Petraeus will deliver a key report on progress in Iraq.

Whether this signals a Walter Cronkite turning point (vis-à-vis the Vietnam War) remains to be seen. But media observers say it represents a marked change, since newspapers have remained largely silent on troop withdrawal until recently.

"It is easy to find papers that have been harshly critical of the conduct of the war, but you can't confuse that with calling for a major change in direction or pullout," said Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher magazine, which covers the newspaper industry. "The New York Times is a good example of being bitter for years but not calling for withdrawal" -- until it finally did so on July 8.

Still, the Times' stance is hardly a philosophical reach. It's when papers in more conservative areas -- Roanoke, Va.; Portsmouth, N.H.; Olympia, Wash.; and the Texas cities of Fort Worth and Dallas -- call for withdrawals or immutable deadlines that the public's growing distaste for this war becomes most vividly reflected....

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0707/5181.html

[Rageneau]

1. And each editorial should come an apology saying "Our Paper Was Wrong!" about Bush and Iraq.

Somehow, someway, somebody has to start restoring accountabilty here in America. A good start would be for the many major media outlets who covered for and promoted Bush and helped him sell us this sinful war to fess up and ask for our forgiveness.

Sigh. But even if they did, these same old editors will keep writing the editorials and will inevirably get completely fooled by the next lying Republican who comes along. When he does, these editors will cover up for and promote him, just as they did Bush.

If editors were fired or silenced when it became obvious that their opining was flat wrong and destructive to the country, then maybe we'd have more responsible (and more disperate) editorial voices in the U.S.

But that will never happen because, once again, there is no longer any concept of "accountability" (at least among Republicans) here in America.