Peter Jennings on the Iraq War

By Lila Rajiva

"Media Research Center - 'the largest media watch-dog organization in America,' it touts itself - is a non-profit conservative outfit founded and run by L. Brent Bozell, a prominent conservative activist. Its website compiles lists of what it considers liberal bias in the media, among which it places Peter Jennings' allegedly anti-American commentary on the Iraq War. Two years after the War, though, that commentary looks more and more like accurate, responsible, and at times prescient reporting. It also undermines the self-exculpatory liberal consensus that Bush "lied us into war" by showing us just how much even broadcast journalists subject to all the particular commercial and government pressures of TV can manage to put on the air if they make the effort.

"Obviously Bush did lie, but just as obviously a number of journalists who now affect misused innocence not only did not question those lies but avidly went along with them. More than government propaganda, media self-censorship and opportunism has to be to blamed for the dismal non-coverage of the Iraq War in America.
"Jennings consistently put the focus where it should have been and not on sideshows served up for public distraction, to the everlasting shame of several leading print outlets, not to mention a tidy number of academic and government experts.

"Not bad for a high school drop out.

"Here are some selections that warranted conservative "cyber alerts," derogatory titles courtesy of MRC ..."
Common Dreams