[Media-watch] Elite print media failed its readers on Iraq war

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2004/032004/03302004/1314704

Viewpoints: Elite print media failed its readers on the Iraq War 

     
Elite print media failed its readers on the Iraq War 

By RICK MERCIER
The Free Lance-Star


Date published: 3/30/2004 

READ A STORY IN EDITOR AND PUBLISHER ABOUT THIS PIECE http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000474545




THE MEDIA are finished with their big blowouts on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and there's one thing they forgot to say: We're sorry.

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.

Of course it's 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. It's the elite print media that failed you the most, because they're the institutions you have to rely on to keep tabs on the politicians in Washington (television news cannot do the kind of in-depth or investigative reporting that print media can do--when they're doing their job properly).

In the past several months, the Times, the Post, and other print media have gotten around to asking questions about the quality of prewar intelligence on Iraq and about whether the administration might have misused that intelligence to sell the war to Americans and the rest of the world.

Most of these media outlets, however, also need to conduct self-examinations. From the horrendously distorted coverage of Times reporter Judith Miller (her sins in many ways were far worse than those of plagiarist/fabricator Jayson Blair) to the bewildering (and biased?) news judgment of the Post's editors, journalists at America's most influential publications helped ensure that a majority of you would be misinformed about Iraq and the nature of the threat it posed to you.

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