Must Viewing - Bill Moyers on PBS

Bill Moyers is reason enough to support the Public Broadcasting System. His opening show on how the media basically gave George W. Bush a pass on going to war with Iraq, was brilliant reporting. Two of our most esteemed publications come in for particular criticism: The Washington Post and the New York Times. Their coverage of the run up to the war bordered on cheerleading. This program is hard to watch at times, as it shows in agonizing detail how easily the Bush Administration manipulated the press, especially the Washington press corps.

One scene early in the program shows President Bush calling on White House correspondents to ask him questions. What was not known at the time, was that the questions were given beforehand to selected reporters picked by Bush Administration officials. That was particulary nauseating to watch. Even Oprah Winfrey participated in pushing the war by bringing on a former Iraqi dissident on her show, who had already been discredited by the CIA. She accepted his version of events in Iraq and pushed aside a criticism by an audience member as just "her opinion". Bill O'Reilly and Fox News, of course come in for much deserved criticism for their war cheerleading. O'Reilly comes across as a reincarnation of Joe McCarthy.

Only the Knight-Ridder organization seemed to do due diligence on the going to war "facts", but they did not have the same clout as the pro-war coverage in the Times and Post. The war rhetoric reached such a fever pitch that MSNBC cancelled the "Phil Donohue Show", because he was questioning the need to go to war.

The period of time perfectly illustrated "group think" in action. No one dared bring up the fact that the "emperor wore no clothes", during this time. Even Dan Rather was cowed. The neoconservative crowd around Bush lived up to their billing by touting the terrorist-Saddam connection on every talk show and on every op-ed piece in the influential Times and Post.

Senator Ted Kennedy was shown giving an anti-war speech and he "nailed" the outcome if we went to war with Iraq. He correctly predicted that we would cause even more terrorism in the middle east. What a prediction. Too bad he isn't running for President. At the end of the program - the viewer is left with the impression that Bush and Company lied to America, lied to Congress, and lied to the media. And we all bought off on their lies, except for a very few. A very sad period in the history of America. This program should be shown in every journalism school in the U.S. As one of the closing commentators noted - ust when journalists need to question our leaders the most, they failed us.

Here is the link to viewing this program: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html