Mysterious Fear
Still, why - given the overwhelming case that the
administration has lied repeatedly - did the Times feel compelled "to
take the best case situation" and then simply say that the
administration "did not tell Americans the full truth." Far from not
telling the full truth, the administration manufactured a case for war
out of whole cloth.
One answer to the question of why the Times and
other news outlets won't hold the Bush administration accountable in
clear English is that many journalists are still afraid they will be
accused of lacking patriotism and face career damage, as happened to
Iraq War skeptics during the jingoistic run-up to the invasion in 2002
and early 2003.
This fear remains strong even as Bush's popularity
crumbles and the Republican attack machine breaks down.
The residual fear is like the terror that Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid felt toward a relentless tracker named Jo
Lefors who wore a white straw hat. Even when facing far worse dangers,
the two outlaws always were spooked at the possibility that they might
spot Lefors's white hat.
Similarly, journalists are so frightened of
accusations that they are undermining the President "at a time of war"
that they will do almost anything to avoid the charge, even as a growing
number of Americans are livid with the media for fawning over Bush and
enabling his disastrous war policies.
What the broader American public has begun to
understand is that Rumsfeld is wrong when he demands unconditional trust
from the people for President Bush. What truly destroys "a free system"
is the betrayal of the people's trust by dishonest government officials,
especially on matters of life and death.
At such moments, the news media only worsens the
destruction of democracy by pretending there is no problem or, worse,
blaming citizens who try to alert the country to the problem. The hard
truth is that the lying won't stop - and the damage to democracy will
just grow worse - until the liars are called to account, however
unpleasant the task.
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