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Ear to the Ground

Moyers Probes Press About Iraq

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Posted on Apr 20, 2007
moyers
ithaca.com

Here’s lookin’ at you, journos:  PBS host Moyers.

In a long-overdue move, PBS’ Bill Moyers is turning his lens on top journalists from mainstream press outlets about their actions, or lack thereof, in the months leading up to the Iraq war.  Editor & Publisher reports that some subjects, such as Dan Rather, were upfront about their roles and failings in “Buying the War,” while others were not as willing to own up.


Editor & Publisher:

Among the few heroes of this devastating film are reporters with the Knight Ridder/McClatchy bureau in D.C. Tragically late, Walter Isaacson, who headed CNN, observes, “The people at Knight Ridder were calling the colonels and the lieutenants and the people in the CIA and finding out, you know, that the intelligence is not very good. We should’ve all been doing that.”

At the close, Moyers mentions some of the chief proponents of the war who refused to speak to him for this program, including Thomas Friedman, Bill Kristol, Roger Ailes, Charles Krauthammer, Judith Miller, and William Safire.

But Dan Rather, the former CBS anchor, admits, “I don’t think there is any excuse for, you know, my performance and the performance of the press in general in the roll up to the war…We didn’t dig enough. And we shouldn’t have been fooled in this way.”

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By JNagarya, April 23, 2007 at 3:04 am Link to this comment

#65756 by Douglas Chalmers on 4/23 at 12:37 am
(125 comments total)

Ernest Canning - “...Truth is not a new religion…”

As TRUTH is the “new world religion”, for my part, that is how I answer. In following the path of Truth, I always know what I believe in and I also know how far It can take me…..and I’m not afraid to believe in It whole-heartedly. I can sincerely recommend It to everybody as the embodiment of All Cosmic Knowledge.

At the Heart, our Love Blossoms, Compassion is manifested and Service is discovered to be the Jewel in the Rock of Attainment!

Gibberish.  The simple act of believing a thing does nothing to guarantee that thing is truth.  Not does one’s committed allegiance to it.

Cho had no doubt that his motives for mass murder were reality, truth.  What—where—is the evidence that they were?

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By Douglas Chalmers, April 22, 2007 at 7:07 pm Link to this comment

Ernest Canning - “...Truth is not a new religion…”

As TRUTH is the “new world religion”, for my part, that is how I answer. In following the path of Truth, I always know what I believe in and I also know how far It can take me…..and I’m not afraid to believe in It whole-heartedly. I can sincerely recommend It to everybody as the embodiment of All Cosmic Knowledge.

At the Heart, our Love Blossoms, Compassion is manifested and Service is discovered to be the Jewel in the Rock of Attainment!

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By cann4ing, April 22, 2007 at 4:27 pm Link to this comment

re comment #65546 by Douglas Chalmers.  Truth is not a new religion.  More often than not truth and religion are perfect strangers.  Indeed, as Chris Hedges so aptly demostrates in “American Fascists:  The Christian Right and the War on America,” religion, at least as it is promulgated by the likes of Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer, is at war with the truth.

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By THOMAS BILLIS, April 22, 2007 at 3:05 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The question becomes why these newspapers will not investigate themselves?Who would have thought as an American I would have to read foreign newspapers to find out what is happening in my own country.The Founding Fathers must be so proud.Why not go to one newspaper filled with handouts from the administration and Judy Miller columns.I even have a name for the paper,what about Pravda.

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By jonathan, April 21, 2007 at 8:55 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Now we need a “TEXAS” resolution to impeach him.
We saw him lie himself into Governor of Texas and lie to justify the invasion of Iraq and he is still lying to prolong the senseless Iraq war.
He also lies saying that Wolfowitz is doing a good job.
Wolfowitz was the designer engineer architect of the excuse for war - the Weapons of mass destruction.
By all means let’s impeach the dummy.
jonathan

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By republicanSScareme, April 21, 2007 at 5:59 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I’m glad to see Moyers is finally back doing meaningful journalism and not interviewing obscure poets.

Nice try, Bill, but the country needs your help.

Where’s Cronkite on all this?

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By Charlie, April 21, 2007 at 4:24 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Wow, RobertBennett, you sure do come here often (and comment often) for someone who doesn’t find Truthdig to be “relevant.”

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By Douglas Chalmers, April 21, 2007 at 2:32 pm Link to this comment

Dale Headley on 4/20 at 5:15 pm “...Bill Moyers is a true patriot.  He presents the truth.  He exposes the lies.  He is a hero…!”

TRUTH is the new religion, Dale!

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By 911truthdotorg, April 21, 2007 at 1:41 pm Link to this comment

I’m sure his program will be awesome, but something tells me he won’t include the fact that the MSM won’t even touch the topic of what REALLY happened on 9/11.

THAT is the foundation of the house of cards.

That is THE ISSUE that needs to be resolved.

Google video: 9/11 Press for Truth

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RobertBennett's avatar

By RobertBennett, April 21, 2007 at 9:52 am Link to this comment

I’m amazed!

TruthDig finally reports something relevant!

But I’m not exactly all aflutter with optimism.

Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn every once in a while.

Peace,
Bob Bennett
Lick Skillet, AL

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By cann4ing, April 21, 2007 at 7:43 am Link to this comment

In addition to the structure of the corporate media, the source of this problem can be found in pseudo-journalists who, rather than ask the hard questions that will enable them to speak truth to power, act as stenographers.  It was encapsulated in Stephen Colbert’s humorous, yet blistering critique at the May 1, 2006 White House Correspondence dinner.

“Here’s how it works.  The President makes the decisions.  He’s the decider.  The press secretary announces the decisions, and you people in the press type those decisions down.  Make, announce, type.  Just put ‘em through a spell check and go home.  Get to know your family again.  Make love to your wife.  Write/ that novel you got kicking around in your head.  You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration?  You know, fiction!”

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By Robert, April 21, 2007 at 6:46 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Doug…One more from a long list! 


“911 The Israeli Connection. The Story Fox News pulled.”
—————————————————————————


Part 1 - Evidence linking Israel to 9/11 is classified.

Part 2 - Israeli phone company in the U.S.

Part 3 - Israeli wiretapping potential - back door.

Part 4 - Conclusion of series & some illegal activities of Israelis.


You can watch the video. Fox News has pulled it. Youtube has made it NOT available anymore.

Watch Fox News video & judge for yourself.

Click “play” & watch this 19 minute video.

http://www.spiderednews.com/video/12022.htm

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By Dale Headley, April 20, 2007 at 6:15 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Bill Moyers is a true patriot.  He presents the truth.  He exposes the lies.  He is a hero!  Right wing pundits like Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and countless others, especially on Fox News, have no respect whatsoever for the truth.  They despise true journalists.  They see their role, not as truth tellers, but as propagators of “patriotic” propaganda.  They see honest journalists as traitors to the cause of empowering the rich (like Rupert Murdoch)and idolizing the chickenhawks (like George W. Bush).

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By mark, April 20, 2007 at 5:54 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Welcome back Bill Moyers. PBS is in desperate need of an overhaul. This group that refuses to defend their previous positions, Thomas Friedman, Bill Kristol, Roger Ailes, Charles Krauthammer, Judith Miller, and William Safire, are all still mouthing off. Like their beloved Bush no matter how poor they were, the professor must pass them under the legacy rules.

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By richard locicero, April 20, 2007 at 5:06 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Why would anyone be surprised that people like Krautheimer, Ailes, Freidman, and Miller wouldn’t go on the record with Moyers? This is the way they operate. A nice clicque of kewl kids who never have to account for their actions. Besides, as everyone knows Friedman gets all his insights from the cabbies he talks to in his travels.

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By JNagarya, April 20, 2007 at 3:58 pm Link to this comment

“And thank you, Vermont legislature, for passing the resolution to impeach THE DUMMY.”

This is absolutely wonderful news.  NPR reported it—so it must be safe to use the word “impeachment” now.

I think there’s truth in the idea that the media is “majoritarian”: when the majority is for the war, the media is for the war (the media having instigated that majority support).  When the majority turns against the war, the media turns against the war—once it’s safe to do so.

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By Douglas Chalmers, April 20, 2007 at 3:50 pm Link to this comment

Robert - “...Hey Douglas…take a look at this…”

Yeah, the reason the US started by bombing Afghanistan was that Saudi Arabia (where the hijackers supposedly came from) was Britain’s biggest armaments customer - but there were NO Afghani hijackers. Yo, Blair!

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By Margaret Currey, April 20, 2007 at 3:08 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Of course Dan Rather was close to the truth when J.Kerry was running, the Swift Boaters were just in the game to get our King George elected or was the election fixed?.  There sure was a lot of voter supression in the state of Fla.  Some people were purged from the voter rolls if their name was spelled close to felons, I know this for a fact, my sister-in-law’s friend was one of these people, in fact she was never in jail, the most crime she ever did was get a parking ticket hardly a felon, some people were told if they were behind on their rent they could go to jail, the last minute change to the place where you could vote, the list goes on and on, because the voter places are changed and the voter is not allways told where to vote.

I personally had to run around to two or three places when I lived in Calif.

So Dan Rather came close to the proof, but the neocons always hide their tracks well.

I wonder what Dan would say about the fall guy Gonzales?

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By Lord Byron, April 20, 2007 at 2:45 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I so hated Thomas Friedman for his columns supporting George W. Bush. That unrepentant JERK of course would not appear on a program of this kind because he knows inside how stupid and foolish he came across. I new then when reading Friedman’s columns leading up to the Iraqi invasion that he was FULL OF IT!

Bill Moyers, this was program was long overdue. American journalism must be experiencing its nadir and everyone wonders if there will ever be a Zenith again.

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By Robert, April 20, 2007 at 2:35 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Hey Douglas…take a look at this CounterPunch Special Investigation Report on 03/07/2007:


“Israeli High-Fivers And Art Students Spies”

“What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?”

By Christopher Ketcham

“What is perhaps most damning is that the Israelis’ celebration on the New Jersey waterfront occured in the first sixteen minutes after the initial crash, when no one was aware this was a terrorist attack. In other words, from the time the first plane hit the north tower, at 8:46 a.m., to the time the second plane hit the south tower, at 9:02 a.m., the overwhelming assumption of the news outlets and government officials was that the plane’s impact was simply a terrible accident. Yet if the men were cheering for the political reasons, as they reportedly told the FBI, they obviously believed they were witnessing a terrorist act, and not an accident.”

Here is the link for the rest of the details regarding 9/11 that we don’t see on the mainstream News outlets:


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17260.htm

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By Hammo, April 20, 2007 at 1:58 pm Link to this comment

The upcoming Moyers show will be disturbing to Americans by showing how corrupt our national government and our press have become.

But, this will be one of many efforts to expose the severe problems in the activities of the Bush-Cheney administration, their associates and supporters.

The warmongers, war profiteers, neocons and chicken hawks who so badly wanted to invade Iraq, even on the basis of lies, should be held accountable in all ways.

Americans will be going through some changes on all these matters in coming months. Will truth and justice prevail? Take a look at:

“Winds of change again blowing across America”

PopulistAmerica.com  
April 20, 2007

http://www.populistamerica.com/winds_of_change_again_blowing_across_america

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By John Lowell, April 20, 2007 at 1:27 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Of all the journalists above declining invitations to speak with Moyer the biggest gas bag and pile of cow flarkus is Thomas Friedman. That Friedman attempts to pass himself off as expert on anything beyond sitting for a shoe shine or a manicure borders on criminal. The New York Times defines itself with such a shlemeil.

John Lowell

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By Tom Doff, April 20, 2007 at 1:13 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Thank you, Bill Moyers.

And a pox on you, Friedman, Kristol, Ailes, Krauthammer, Miller, Safire. And I’ll bet Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith and the rest of the Israel-Firsters wouldn’t have commented if asked, either. They’re all too busy trying to distance themselves from their responsibility for instigated the horrific, amoral, illegal debacle of the Iraq war.

And thank you, Vermont legislature, for passing the resolution to impeach THE DUMMY.

It’s a good start to a change of course in the right direction.

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By Douglas Chalmers, April 20, 2007 at 1:00 pm Link to this comment

Didn’t it start with 9/11? We know that was a set-up that didn’t happen the way it has been “sold” to us. We know there never any WMD’s in the Middle East except in Israel. And, we know that Saddam was set up for the first Gulf war too.

Now, how about some ANSWERS?!?!

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By QuyTran, April 20, 2007 at 12:53 pm Link to this comment

Dan Rather’s always right since GWB Father still on his throne.

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