WP's Froomkin calls out press, Blitzer for enabling Bush's denial on Iraq

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush vs. Reality
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, September 21, 2006

On the dominant issue of our time, the president is in denial.

By most reliable accounts, three and a half years into the U.S. occupation, Iraq is in chaos -- if not in a state of civil war, then awfully close. But President Bush insists it's not so.

You might think that the enormous gulf between Bush's perceptions and reality on such a life-and-death topic would be, well, newsworthy. But if members of the Washington press corps consider it news at all, apparently it's old news. They report Bush's assertions about Iraq without noting that his fundamental assessment of the situation is dramatically contradicted by the reporting from their own colleagues on the ground....

***

Case in point, Wolf Blitzer's lackluster interview with the president on CNN yesterday...."BLITZER: I'll read to you what Kofi Annan said on Monday. He said, 'If current patterns of alienation and violence persist much further, there is a grave danger the Iraqi state will break down, possibly in the midst of a full-scale civil war.' Is this what the American people bought into?

"BUSH: You know, it's interesting you quoted Kofi. I'd rather quote the people on the ground who are very close to the situation, and who live it day by day, our ambassador or General Casey. I ask this question all the time, tell me what it's like there, and this notion that we're in civil war is just not true according to them...."That's how I learn it. I can't learn it -- I can't -- frankly, can't learn it from your newscasts. What I have got to learn it from is people who are there on the ground."

Blitzer let the issue drop.

The reality check only came several hours later, as Soleded O'Brien was talking to CNN Iraq correspondent Michael Ware...."O'BRIEN: You heard what the president had to say, which is, essentially, the good news that's out there is not getting reported. Have you found that to be true on the ground where you have been?

"MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, look, really, nothing could be further from the truth....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Yes, this is great. nt

[Jack Rabbit]

2. K&R

That is not only a spot on damnation of Bush, but a serious self-examination of the media's collusion in his active crimes and his general incompetency for one who writes for a major newspaper that has been one of the worst offenders.

[Hand]

3. Froomkin rocks.

He truly does. Doesn't give an inch on anyone's BS. :toast:

[Blackhatjack]

4. If WARE keeps telling the truth, He won't be around much longer.....

It really is a breath of fresh air for a reporter on the ground to tell it like it is.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Ware is great to watch -- he looks like a real reporter...

and the accent somehow makes him even more authentic.

[grasswire]

6. earlier thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2839418