Hey, Indeed

To borrow Professor CrackerBarrel's favorite expression, EJ Dionne laid down the truth in yesterday's WaPo Column:

But this particular anti-press campaign is not about Journalism 101. It is about Power 101. It is a sophisticated effort to demolish the idea of a press independent of political parties by way of discouraging scrutiny of conservative politicians in power. By using bad documents, Dan Rather helped Bush, not John Kerry, because Rather gave Bush's skilled lieutenants the chance to use the CBS mistake to close off an entire line of inquiry about the president. In the case of Guantanamo, the administration, for a while, cast its actions as less important than Newsweek's.

Back when the press was investigating Bill Clinton, conservatives were eager to believe every negative report about the incumbent. Some even pushed totally false claims, including the loony allegation that Clinton aide Vince Foster was somehow murdered by Clinton's apparatchiks when, in fact, Foster committed suicide. Every journalist who went after Clinton was "courageous." Anyone who opposed his impeachment or questioned even false allegations was "an apologist."

The whole post-9/11 era has been one of press pussification and intimidation. Dionne's point doesn't go far enough in pointing out one true fact about the lead up to the war in Iraq. By and large the major media, including the Post, was a group of fawning cheerleaders for what they thought would be "Operation Kickass". A smart bomb here, a smart bomb there, a little drama and wahoo, fun pictures and video for all media. Their sycophantic jingoism, complete with embedded flag digital imagery and the stream of "pictures of those who are serving" along with not showing pictures of those who have died, all pushed this nutjob agenda in the Winter and Spring of 2003.

Few, if any, covered those questioning the necessity for war as being anything more than celebrity diletentes, appeasers, or even worse, French.

That was exactly the image that Bush and the right-wing wanted. To be a good journalist then, you had to clap louder. At the very least now, if you are not gonna clap, then shut the fuck up!

But coming soon is the more "old-school" application of this manipulation method. The moment will come when it is plain for all to see that Iraq is a hopeless cause and death after death has been in vain. The fault will be laid not upon the doorstep of those who started the war, who cheered for it, who pushed false claim after false claim.

No, the fault will be placed, as it was placed in the wake of Vietnam, upon those who had the wisdom and intelligence to see through the bullshit the whole time.

So, dear progressives, it will become your fault that the war you didn't want fought, was fought. Wait for it, it will come.