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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (2160)	6/16/2003 7:35:02 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

At least one country's media hasn't forgotten what independent journalism is all about. Maybe because they aren't "embedded" in their government sources like little kangaroos in mama's pouch: By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 16, 2003; Page C01 LONDON -- George W. Bush bloody well has it easy. He doesn't have to put up with the hour-by-hour pounding that the British press gives Tony Blair, with journalists calling him a liar and worse in a raging debate over whether Iraq really had weapons of mass destruction. A week's excursion here provided a spot-on contrast with the American media, most of which pursue the weapons issue with tea-and-crumpets politeness compared with the screaming headlines inflicted on the prime minister -- along with his American counterpart, the subject of a London play called "The Madness of George Dubya." The media assault on 10 Downing St. has been relentless. "Revealed: How Blair Used Discredited WMD 'Evidence,' " shouted the Independent. "No. 10 'Doctored' Iraq Dossier," bellowed the Sunday Times. When the prime minister denied that his government had misled anyone, the Daily Mirror ran a close-up shot of his perspiring forehead, with the banner: "Blair Feels the Heat." And what American paper would run a cartoon, as the Times of London did, with the words "Yes, Folks, You Can Trust Us!" emanating from the leader of the country's rear end? For all the hubbub, some of the media's evidence was rather thin. The Guardian made the sensational front-page charge that Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had questioned the quality of intelligence on Iraqi weapons at a New York meeting on Feb. 5. When it turned out Straw was in France that day, the Guardian waited days before running a correction on Page 25. Some scoff at their American cousins. Guardian columnist Gary Younge chided the U.S. press for "at best a reluctance, and at worst a downright refusal, to engage with views and voices opposed to George Bush's foreign policy." The distrust of leaders runs deep here. "So How Do You Know When a Politician Is Lying? When His Lips Move," scoffed a Times of London headline. About the only public figure to escape public flogging is Queen Elizabeth, who drew gushing coverage on her 50th anniversary as monarch (even as the papers were kicking around Prince Charles for planning to publish a job description of whatever it is that he does).

To: Dale Baker who wrote (2160)	6/16/2003 5:03:28 PM
From: Yogizuna	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

>>>> Part of that stemmed from his frustration with the culture of the White House. He was loath to discuss it. His wife, Bonnie, a school administrator, was not: "It's a very closed, small, controlled group. This is an administration that determines what it thinks and then sets about to prove it. There's almost a religious kind of certainty. There's no curiosity about opposing points of view. It's very scary. There's kind of a ghost agenda." <<<< Yes, no doubt about it, Bush II believes he is on a "mission from god", and that the end justifies the means.