Krugman: "...administration is trying, yet again, to deceive the public."

[understandinglife]

The point isn't just that the administration is trying, yet again, to deceive the public. It's the fact that this attempt at deception shows such contempt - contempt for the public, and especially contempt for the news media. And why not? The truth is that the level of misrepresentation in this new document is no worse than that in a typical speech by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. Yet for much of the past five years, many major news organizations failed to provide the public with effective fact-checking.

So Mr. Bush's new public relations offensive on Iraq is a test. Are the news media still too cowed, too addicted to articles that contain little more than dueling quotes to tell the public when the administration is saying things that aren't true? Or has the worm finally turned?

There have been encouraging signs, notably a thorough front-page fact-checking article - which even included charts showing the stagnation of oil production and electricity generation! - in USA Today. But the next few days will tell.

Link:

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/opinion/02krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

In_deed, they will.

I'll post a link to the full Op-Ed as soon as TruthOut or some other site makes it available.

This is perhaps the most significant Op-Ed Mr Krugman has published.

He knows Bush and the neoconsters have lied. He knows the press has either acted as willing propagandist or unpatriotic stenographer.

Has the 'worm finally turned'? Let's hope so, for the sake of America and humanity.


Peace.