The Lapdog Press

It pains me to compliment Dana Milbank, so let's get this over with and we will never speak of it again. In A Giant of Journalism Comes Up Short, Milbank reviews a book by veteran reporter Helen Thomas, whose interrogations of Bush Administration press secretaries have become comical in their advocacy.

Milbank says much of the book, Watchdogs of Democracy, is a "rather unpleasant rehashing of the liberal criticism of the press's performance before the Iraq war." And rather unfounded:

"Nothing is more troubling to me than the obsequious press during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq," she tells us, citing pulled punches at news conferences. "Critics are still wondering why White House reporters were so quiescent at President Bush's March 6, 2003, news conference, which was scripted and in which he made it eminently clear that the United States was going to war. . . . White House reporters became a laughingstock before the viewing public, who wondered about all the 'softballs' being pitched to the president at such a momentous time."

Really? Let's review some of the "softballs" that were tossed that night:

"If all these nations . . . have access to the same intelligence information, why is it that they are reluctant to think that the threat is so real, so imminent that we need to move to the brink of war now?"

"I wonder why you think so many people around the world take a different view of the threat that Saddam Hussein poses than you and your allies?"

"How would you answer your critics who say that they think this is somehow personal? As Senator Kennedy put it . . . your fixation with Saddam Hussein is making the world a more dangerous place."

"What went wrong that so many governments and people around the world now not only disagree with you very strongly, but see the U.S. under your leadership as an arrogant power?"

Et cetera. Milbank includes samples of what Thomas's own questions have degenerated into these days:

On Saddam Hussein and Iraq: "For 11 years he's been contained, and everybody knows that. . . . I don't think you should keep threatening war every day. . . . This is a question of conquest....

Thomas gets this kind of leeway because of what she was, not because of the kind of journalism she's practicing today.

Milbank gets in a jab about the press falling asleep on WMD, but we'll let that pass as a sign of tribal loyalty.

Comments

[Ken Shepherd]

I feel your pain, bro.

I also blogged about this at NewsBusters.org:

http://newsbusters.org/node/6453