Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Which group is more responsible: Journalists or Politicians?

In a debate about which side acts more responsibly in their roles serving the public, my vote sides strongly with journalists here.

Of course, I'm biased. But I'm also certain that I am correct.

My belief is only strengthened today by a report in the USA Today about an Iraqi WMD information who apparently lied. OK, we can probably agree that's not a shock. We're talking about a country that was strife with corruption back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Lies were bound to happen.

Apparently, this person code-named "Curveball" is behind some of the stories that convinced the Bush Administration that there were definitely WMDs in Iraq - enough so to start a war over. One person.

Here are a few areas where I would expect journalists - especially those at the highest level on par with the level of our federal government that botched this - would have likely made different decisions:
1. It takes more than one source to report something so serious.
2. The source was clearly anti-Saddam Hussein, which would bring his credibility immediately into doubt.
3. German officials actually received this information - so it came to the U.S. (Colin Powell used the information directly in a 2003 speech according to the article) second hand. Reporters would demand more credible sources.
4. The source, "Curveball," was also reportedly given promises by the Germans that his cooperation would make it easier for his wife and child to join him in Germany - so he clearly had something to gain. This is one of the biggest red flags of all for journalists.

So, while I believe a half-competent journalist would have handled this very differently our country went to war based largely on the fact there were WMDs in Iraq - something we now know to be untrue.

If a newspaper botched this up as badly as the Bush Administration apparently did, it would take decades to recover the trust of readers - if ever. That's what happens in the industry - it's the strongest form of media accountability.

What do we do now to hold the Bush Administration accountable?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would suggest that neither has been responsible, or doing their jobs. You clearly have an axe to grind with the previous administration. Do you only complain after the fact? If not, where is your trail of sounding alarms on this administration? supposedly the most transparent administration ever? The media went after Bush on a 30yr old DUI and felt Obamas admitted cocaine use was not worth looking into. There is a bias in the media / political / educational systems and until people do the job with out favoritism and an agenda to push their work is as worthless as the junk you write. Teach ethics to your students, the pen is to dangerous for someone without.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it amazing that, within only one week of Tiger Woods crashing his Escalade, the press found every woman with whom Tiger has had an affair during the last few years? And, they even uncovered photos, text messages, recorded phone calls, etc.! Furthermore, they not only know the cause of the family fight, but they even know it was a wedge from his golf bag that his wife used to break out the windows in the Escalade. Not only that, they know which wedge! And, each & every day, they were able to continue to provide America with updates on Tiger's sex rehab stay, his wife's plans for divorce, as well as the dates & tournaments in which he will play.
Now, Barack Obama has been in office for over two years, yet this very same press:
· Cannot find any of his childhood friends or neighbors;
· Or find any of Obama's high school or college classmates;
· Or find any of Obama's Girl Friends;
· Or locate any of his college papers or grades;
· Or determine how he paid for both a Columbia & a Harvard education;
· Or discover which country issued his visa to travel to Pakistan in the 1980's;
· Or even find Michelle Obama's Princeton thesis on racism.

They just can't seem to uncover any of this?

Yet, the public still trusts that same press to give them the whole truth!

mesfox said...

Well "Anonymous," thanks for the contributions. I'm curious why no name, first?

Second, I'm not sure I see the correlation between the post about the job journalists do and politics. If you decided to make this an "anti-Bush" conversation, I wonder about your own "axe to grind."

My point was to be critical of the job journalists did in this area. It was poor work. It was just as poor work by our own administration.

Has the current administration also done a poor job in many areas? Yes.

Has big media done it's job better the last 10 months? No.