Media Musings: People should seek the truth
This is the age of character assassination, rage and, too often, compliant journalism.
The nation has never seen the likes of the Bush Administration’s attack mode, which is used every day in every way to not tell the American people the truth and kill those who do. And, sadly, it has even pulled into its ranks leaders we once felt were tied to us and not to a form of blind allegiance to the Republican Party and Mr. Bush: Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist.
The latest battleground is the book, “Against All Enemies” by Richard Clarke, where in says the Bush Administration did not care about terrorism before 9/11 and that Bush was focused only on Iraq, before and after 9/11.
That is really what happened, and it has been confirmed over and over again by many reliable and moderate sources. More and more evidence is piling up, as well, that Bush’s fixation on Iraq deeply injured our pursuit of Al Qaeda.
So, what is now standard policy is activated: get administration leaders to go on Sunday talk shows and blister Clarke. Get talk radio – led by Rush Limbaugh – to ridicule and attack Clarke as a has-been political wannabe who wants to join “all the other liberals at the Kennedy School of Government.”
The White House, stung by the same kind of revelations about its polices by former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill wants to launch an investigation to see if he had leaked classified information. It appears that he didn’t but O’Neill had been damaged in the minds of the casual follower of politics.
To show how selective the Bush Administration is about matters, it doesn’t care about who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to one of its favorite war dogs, Bob Novak.
Then there’s Richard Foster’s story. Foster is the Medicare actuary who revealed how the administration had deceived Congress about the prescription drug bill. This time, the Bush Administration has been playing the behind-the-scenes game of shear tactics, leaking to its Washington press corps.
CNN picks up the smears with reporters like Wolf Blitzer using those famous “unnamed” officials. Why not out the source the way good journalism is done? Ratings, pal. Ratings. Better to titillate with some unchecked comment than force the source on the record or tell him you won’t use it.
Then there’s the other rule of battle: if your attack may not work, hide what you did. It’s called Executive Privilege.
George Washington started this business when he was president, claiming the Executive Branch had “executive privilege” regarding information and he hid an Indian massacre from the people.
Bush loves executive privilege, like no other man who ever sat in the West Wing. How about those secret Cheney-led meetings to create a new national energy policy? No, can’t know about that, said Bush, and covered it with executive privilege.
Then he blocked sworn testimony to be given by National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in public about 9/11, even though the panel knows much of what she would say. When the president’s adviser, Karl Rove, saw the polls dropping, the White House did an about face.
Because the latest poll numbers are out and the Bush administration is winning the war of words with Kerry. Its savagery is rewarded by keeping the people divided and its obvious belief that the people really don’t pay close attention to what’s happening.
They should be careful about that belief. It may be their downfall.
(Ed Kimbrell is a professor in MTSU’s School of Journalism.)