Media suffering "Iraq Fatigue" says Newsweek WH Senior Correspondent

[RamboLiberal]

RICHARD WOLFFE, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSWEEK": I think there's a certain amount of Iraq fatigue, at least among the media, which is hard to kind of fathom in some way. It goes in cycle.

On Newsnight on Aaron Brown this pissed me off last night when they were discussing the DSM. I want more info on Iraq and how the DSM is the smoking gun that shows how President Cuckoo Bananas lied us in to this war. This viewer is suffering "Michael Jackson, Missing White Woman of the month" fatigue.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/08/asb.01.html

GREENFIELD (on camera): Two questions surround this memo. First, even if it is an accurate summary of how Bush was feeling in the summer of 2002, would it matter?

Second, why did it stir so much attention on one side of the Atlantic and hardly any at all in the United States?

(voice-over) The second question is relatively easy to answer. The memo surfaced just before Britons went to the polls in an election where Blair's support for the Iraq war was a major issue. The war's unpopularity in Britain was one reason why Blair's Labour Party won with a sharply reduced majority in Parliament.

In the United States, by contrast, the high-voltage presidential campaign ended months ago.

RICHARD WOLFFE, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSWEEK": I think there's a certain amount of Iraq fatigue, at least among the media, which is hard to kind of fathom in some way. It goes in cycle.

GREENFIELD: Richard Wolffe is "Newsweek's" senior White House correspondent.

WOLFFE: I think there is an appetite to rerun this historical debate. The question is, is it worth still being there? What was the reason for being there? And is it still worth defending and fighting for?

GREENFIELD: Further, the idea that Bush has been committed to the removal of Saddam for a very long time has been raised before. Among others, by former treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill and by former White House terrorism chief, Richard Clarke.

But what about the substance? It is true that all through the last months of 2002 and the first months of 2003, the president was publicly insisting that war was not inevitable, that he was looking for a way to pressure Saddam peacefully.

BUSH: I think a lot of people are saying, you know, gosh, I hope we don't have war. I feel the same way.

War's not my first choice.

I made the decision to go to the United Nations because I wanted to try to do this peacefully.

WOLFFE: We had no idea that he had really decided to go to war, which is what this memo says. All of the public comments were that the president had no war plans on his desk.

GREENFIELD: But the memo's account of the past is not the biggest Iraq dilemma facing the president. It's what's happening now: the continuing violence, the absence of any near-term likelihood of a conclusion, and the financial drain.

Iraq and Afghanistan will now cost some $400 billion. And a just released ABC News/"Washington Post" poll shows a clear public shift. For the first time, more than half believe the Iraq war has not made America safer. Two thirds say the United States is bogged down and nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting. More than 40 percent now see Iraq as something like another Vietnam.

(on camera) The real power of this memo, then, is its potential to reinforce beliefs that flow from current events. The more worried Americans are about the present, the more pessimistic they become about the future, the more likely they are to have doubts about what really happened in the past.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Hey wolf

why not try this thing called INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST.. you may even get an award for it.... don't tell us we ar suffering Iraq fatigue, we are not... in fact we want you guys TO COVER THE FUCKING WAR and the reasons to go to war insteand of... a white woman lost in Bermuda

[bpilgrim]

2. we're suffering SHARK-ATTACK fatigue

fyi

peace

[htuttle]

3. If they think they're tired of Iraq

...they should try asking one of our troops.

Or better yet, ask an Iraqi if they are tired of US troops in Iraq.

Media: "Oh, we're bored with Iraq."

:eyes:

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. How can a subject you refuse to cover properly cause fatique?

Oh wait, it must be absolutely exhausting to ignore big news stories when you supposedly have training as journalists and editors.

[havocmom]

5. *snarf!* NAh, they're just exhusted from trying to spin what won't be

spun: The whole invasion was based on a lie because of Imperial Corproate Greed. Families attending funerals are getting some press and won't be silenced. Attempting to silence those speaking truth to power is what has MSM all worn out, poor babies.

[displacedtexan]

6. Typical Greenfield Ass Droppings

1. I doubt its authenticity; but even if it's true, it's no biggie.

2. This is old news (trans. We smeared Paul O'Neill a long time ago.)

3. We can't focus on this now. It's not as important as THE WAR.

Total crap.

If this is the "New & Improved" CNN, I'm not playing.

[alittlelark]

7. I think THE TROOPS are suffering MUCH more "Iraq Fatique'

than they are.:puke:

[deutsey]

8. Oh, the poor dears

:banghead:

[Al-CIAda]

9. I guess all the repetitive lying and deception gets boring after a while.

Time to lie about something else.

[jobycom]

10. The fatique comes from tapdancing and playing dodgeball instead

of just reporting the damn facts. Read this dumbass discussion. Nothing is said, a bunch of facts are thrown out, and the idiots just dance around them as though they are landmines to avoid. I got fatigued reading it.

They want people to listen, they should say something. "The Downing Street Minutes prove that Bush fixed the evidence to invade Iraq. He lied to you, people. What do you think of that?" Maybe something direct would get people's attention. Instead we hear "This new document commonly being referred to as the Downing Street Memo, even though it would more accurately be described as the minutes of a meeting, implies through language that is fairly specific that Bush may have actually already made up his mind to go into Iraq at some point before he informed Americans that he had made up his mind, and there is even the hint that someone was manipulating evidence to make it appear that Bush's case was stronger than it was, in some ways. I mean, I guess Bush's critics could interpret this as a sort of evidence that Bush misled some people, couldn't they? Well, back to MICHAEL JACKSON!!!"

No wonder people are fatigued.

[tsuki]

11. They're tired. It's hard werk.

[cybildisobedience]

12. When Bush came on board, their excuse...

was that there was "scandal fatigue" from covering ALL the wrongdoing in the Clinton administration (which was a joke).
That was their excuse for not aggressively covering Bush and giving him a honeymoon that lasted until....well, it's still on!
Not they have Iraq fatigue.
Here's a thought -- if actually doing your jobs is so damn hard, why don't you just give up your enormous salary, the corporate perks, the pricey homes in Alexandria, the private schools for your kids, the vacation homes in Nantucket, the cocktail parties at Sally Quinn's place, and let someone who isn't so "fatigued" fulfill the responsibility of government watchdog.
But you can't have it both ways.

[raccoon]

13. They're just a bunch of overpaid wimps

who don't report the truth, think they're wonderful and their word is gospel.

Why don't their employers just lay them off and replace them with qualified H1B foreigners that will work for much less? </sarcasm>