Molly Ivins Must Read: "We Can't Ignore the Downing Street Memos"

[flpoljunkie]

Molly Ivins: We can't ignore the Downing Street Memos

By Molly Ivins

Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, June 21, 2005

AUSTIN, Texas -- I hope this is not too Inside Baseball, but I am genuinely astonished by what the bloggers call "Mainstream Media." (In my youth, it was quaintly called "the Establishment press.")

The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have all gone way out of their way to deny that the Downing Street Memos (it's now plural) are news. Like many of you, during the entire lead-up to the war with Iraq, I thought the whole thing was a set-up.

<>But when I read the first Downing Street Memo, my eyes bugged out and my jaw fell open. I could not believe what I was reading. It was news to me, and as I have tried to indicate, I'm no slouch at keeping up. Yes, it has long seemed to me the administration had been planning the war for months before it began its public relations campaign to scare a skeptical public.

<>I don't know if these memos represent an impeachable offense -- although I must say, I don't want to bring up the Clinton comparison again. But they strike me as a hell of lot worse than anything Richard Nixon ever contemplated. He used the government for petty political vindictiveness. Heck, I'd settle for that again, over what we're looking at now.

The irony of Deep Throat surfacing after all these years in the midst of this memo mess is almost too precious. Does The Washington Post have any hungry young reporters on Metro anymore? I'd say, start with: Who did Dearlove meet with besides George Tenet?

more...

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/national/ivins/v-print/story/13102259p-13947010c.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. Since Molly asked, I will answer

No - there are no hungry young reporters on the Metro desk at the Washington Post, or elsewhere. They have all been replaced with "clean cut" corporate toadies. That's why the "news" America gets these days is so false and feckless.

The establishment corporate press is a disgrace in disguise.

[cthrumatrix]

3. the reporters left a long time ago.... burger flippers now

[Psst_Im_Not_Here]

2. Gotta love Molly

I never miss a column. Go Molly!

[donkeyotay]

4. We were waiting for Bush to "make his case" for war

that's the language being used that I recall, and he never did make the case, he just fabricated a mushroom cloud lie that nobody, especially not anyone elected, dare deny. The WH won by implying that they knew more about the terrorist threat than they could tell the likes of us. (This secrecy-for-the-sake-of-national-security crap has really got to be stopped.)

"Like many of you, during the entire lead-up to the war with Iraq, I thought the whole thing was a set-up."

[spooky3]

5. As a WaPo subscriber I have repeatedly written to ask that they add

Molly Ivins to the editorial pages.

I'm still waiting for a response.

It's probably too hard to find space, what with 2 dozen or so regularly published male columnists plus Anne Applebaum. And with all except EJ Dionne and an occasional Richard Cohen column leaning right (some like Will, Novak, and Krauthammer leaning HARD right) they do have their "editorial balance" to maintain. Kinsley, the other columnist some people might call lefty, is such a sexist and dopey about DSM that he hardly belongs in even the moderate column any more.

At least there are sometimes some good articles on the non-editorial pages.