[Media-watch] Reporter Apologizes for Iraq Coverage

[David Miller]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content
_id=1000474545


Reporter Apologizes for Iraq Coverage

By E&P Staff 

Published: March 29, 2004

NEW YORK In the wake of Richard Clarke's dramatic personal apology to the
families of 9/11 victims last week -- on behalf of himself and his
government -- for failing to prevent the terrorist attacks, one might expect
at least a few mea culpas related to the release of false information on the
Iraq threat before and after the war.

While the major media, from The New York Times on down, has largely remained
silent about their own failings in this area, a young columnist for a small
paper in Fredericksburg, Va., has stepped forward.

"The media are finished with their big blowouts on the anniversary of the
invasion of Iraq, and there is one thing they forgot to say: We're sorry,"
Rick Mercier wrote, in a column published Sunday in The Free Lance-Star.

"Sorry we let unsubstantiated claims drive our coverage. Sorry we were
dismissive of experts who disputed White House charges against Iraq. Sorry
we let a band of self-serving Iraqi defectors make fools of us. Sorry we
fell for Colin Powell's performance at the United Nations. Sorry we couldn't
bring ourselves to hold the administration's feet to the fire before the
war, when it really mattered.

"Maybe we'll do a better job next war."

Mercier admitted that it was "absurd to receive this apology from a person
so low in the media hierarchy. You really ought to be getting it from the
editors and reporters at the agenda-setting publications, such as The New
York Times and The Washington Post."

Mercier, an editor and writer at the newspaper who writes a column two or
three times a month, told E&P that the column was sparked by what he saw as
"a need for accountability and reflection" given the seriousness of the
current conflict in Iraq and the failure to find WMDs there or a strong
Saddam link to al Qaeda. He saw little of that soul-searching in the
one-year anniversary coverage. "By neglecting to fully employ their
critical-thinking faculties, the media not only failed their readers and
viewers, they failed our democracy," Mercier said.

Concluding his column, Mercier declared, "there's no excusing that failure.
The only thing that can be said is, Sorry."
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E&P Staff 



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