MSM Bad too

Fox News isn’t the only “news” source in America to get things wrong, to have biased reporting or sloppy journalism. Arguably, they’re the most blatant, but they’re certainly not unique.

Consider the extent to which mainstream news organisations quickly adopt White House positions as conventional knowledge not requiring questioning. The biggest example of that is talk that any opposition to Bush’s Iraq war is “undermining the troops”.

The Associated Press reported on Bush speaking to a fundraising dinner where he raised US$6.2 million for Republican candidates for the US House. Bush urged Congress to pass his emergency war spending bill, despite resistance from many Democrats.

The AP reported:

Democrats won control of the House and Senate in November, fueled in large part by the public’s weariness with war. Yet asserting influence is tricky for Democrats. They have the power of the purse but don't want to undermine the troops. [emphasis added]

As Greg Sargent of The Horse’s Mouth pointed out, the AP paragraph is

…another sign of just how thoroughly some have absorbed this absurd GOP talking point. …This might have read that Dems fear being made to appear to undermine the troops, or that they fear being accused of undermining the troops. But the AP is now reporting as objective fact that cutting funding would “undermine the troops.” Nice.

Why should anyone be surprised? The news media rarely use traditional journalistic tools, relying instead on anonymous sources without ever considering, apparently, that these sources may be trying to promote a single monolithic view.

It’s a standard Republican mantra that Congress exercising oversight and fiscal responsibility would somehow undermine the troops. Bush himself reinforces that theme at every opportunity. In his weekly radio address, he re-used much of his speech from the Republican fundraiser to make the same point:

In times of war, Congress has no greater obligation than funding our war-fighters, and next week Congress will begin debate on an emergency war spending bill… Unfortunately some in Congress are using this bill as an opportunity to micro-manage our military commanders, force a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, and spend billions on domestic projects that have nothing to do with the war on terror. Our troops urgently need Congress to approve emergency war funds.

In this short selection from the beginning of his radio address, Bush manages to tie war funds to support for the troops. He also tries to link his Iraq war with the “war on terror” and to fend off Congressional oversight as “micro-management”.

Oversight isn’t a concept that the Bushies are very familiar with, since it was entirely missing during the first six years of their rule. However, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Congress is going to have a tough time acting on its responsibility if the mainstream news media fail to act on theirs.