Thomas: Democratic Rumblings in Middle
East Make Press Look "Bad"
Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas declared on Monday's Imus in the Morning that "I just love" the rise of democratic activity in the Middle East "because it makes the press look so bad." Recalling the media's ridicule of all the problems President Bush's Iraq policy would cause in the region, Thomas, now teaching a writing course at Harvard University, dismissed the arguments from reporters against giving Bush credit: "They say, 'Well, he got lucky, Arafat died and,' you know, 'the Syrians assassinated that former Prime Minister, and it's really not Bush, it was just kind of an accident.' Well, you know, that's nonsense." Thomas proposed that "if it's possible to have a good war -- and I don't know if it is, but if it is, it was, because it enabled those elections and those elections have enabled a lot of people in the region to think there's a chance to take control of their lives."
Thomas appeared by phone during the 6:30am EST half hour of the Imus in the Morning show on MSNBC simulcast on radio. He informed Don Imus of how he's away from Newsweek for a while teaching expository writing to freshmen at Harvard University.
The MRC's Jessica Barnes caught the scolding of the media by Thomas, prompted by Imus asking: "So with what's going on throughout the Middle East, these various demonstrations of a thirst for democracy?"
Thomas: "I just love this story because it makes the press look so bad. I mean, I hope it all works out and we do get peace and freedom in the Middle East, but my short-term, narrow entertainment here is that, you know, all the chattering classes, all my friends, including me, were all saying 'Oh,' you know, 'Iraq was a terrible thing and Bush has screwed up the Middle East and we're just creating terrorists and nothing's going to work here and it's the end of the world,' and then the next thing you know, peace and freedom and democracy are breaking out and they can't explain it. You know, they say, 'Well, he got lucky, Arafat died and,' you know, 'the Syrians assassinated that former prime minister, and it's really not Bush, it was just kind of an accident.' Well, you know, that's nonsense. I mean, Bush, this is a case where his absolute inflexible, stubborn insistence that he was going to do it his way, I think is turning out to be the right thing to do. And however horrible the Iraq War has been and there are a lot of dead soldiers and maimed soldiers and all that, you know, it turns out their sacrifice was for something, it wasn't just for nothing, it wasn't just because some politician screwed up. That may be the beginning of something huge happening in the region of actual freedom beginning to break out, and if I was the parent of one of those soldiers, I would be feeling a little better now. Maybe not great, but a little better because I think it's gonna -- I think, think, it's early -- it's going to turn out that that war was, despite the WMD and all that, that war was a meaningful war, if it's possible to have a good war -- and I don't know if it is, but if it is, it was, because it enabled those elections and those elections have enabled a lot of people in the region to think there's a chance to take control of their lives and get rid of their, you know, their crummy old governments."
Imus: "Of course, Tom Friedman's been writing about that forever."
Thomas: "Yeah, he was pretty lonely. I mean, Tom Friedman was, you know, a lot of his liberal friends were sneering at him and he was taking a lot of heat for that position. He was a pretty lonely hawk on the war and a lot of people were saying, you know, ‘What happened to Tom Friedman? He's gone overboard and,' you know, 'completely wrong.' Well, it turns out Friedman was right."
Last year, Thomas recognized the obvious about the media bias in favor of John Kerry, but a recognition resisted by his colleagues. As recounted by the July 12, 2004 CyberAlert:
The media "wants Kerry to win" and so "they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic," Evan Thomas, the Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, admitted on Inside Washington over the weekend. He should know. His magazine this week sports a smiling Kerry and Edwards on its cover with the yearning headline, "The Sunshine Boys?" Inside, an article carrying Thomas' byline contrasted how "Dick Cheney projects the bleakness of a Wyoming winter, while John Edwards always appears to be strolling in the Carolina sunshine." The cover story touted how Kerry and Edwards "became a buddy-buddy act, hugging and whispering like Starsky and Hutch after consuming the evidence." See: www.mediaresearch.org
See item #4 below for confirmation of Thomas' prediction |
