On Iraq, journalists didn’t fail. They just didn’t succeed
For much of the past decade, the American news media has chastised itself for how badly it performed in the months leading up to the war in Iraq. The 10th anniversary of the conflict, in particular, offered article after article this past week condemning the media’s “failure” to challenge the Bush administration’s rationale for the war, plus plenty of mea culpas by journalists.
There’s no doubt that many news organizations, including this one, missed important stories, underplayed others that were skeptical of the administration’s case and acted too deferentially to those in power. A few instances — such as the New York Times’ September 2002 report hyping Iraq’s aluminum tubes as evidence of a reconstituted nuclear program — have become infamous.… Seguir leyendo »