Bush Takes Potshots at Messenger: By Helen Thomas [View All]

[kpete]

Published on Friday, March 31, 2006
by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bush Takes Potshots at Messenger
by Helen Thomas

WASHINGTON -- President Bush seems to believe the news media's coverage of the Iraq war is why many Americans fail to see that everything is coming up roses there.

That's an old ploy: "Kill the messenger who brings the bad news."

The administration had a free ride with the news media and Congress in the run-up to the war, with few questions asked.

Three years ago, news outlets and TV networks played ball, keeping gruesome photographs off television and meekly abiding by Pentagon rules that put military caskets off limits to reporters and cameras. But even as the U.S. news media now shows signs of recovering its courage, images or news stories won't decide the success or failure of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.

That will be determined by whether the people of Iraq will show that they want to live with one another in peace, without outside interference.

Lots, lots, lots more at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0331-20.htm