Is It Extremist To Expect Actual Reporting of Facts?
In Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney completely misrepresented how we ended up in Iraq. Later, Mike Huckabee mistakenly claimed that it was Ronald Reagan’s birthday. Guess which remark The Washington Post identified as the “gaffe of the night”? Folks, this is serious. If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven’t changed a bit.
. . . Asked whether we should have invaded Iraq, Mr. Romney said that war could only have been avoided if Saddam “had opened up his country to I.A.E.A. inspectors, and they’d come in and they’d found that there were no weapons of mass destruction.” He dismissed this as an “unreasonable hypothetical.” Except that Saddam did, in fact, allow inspectors in. Remember Hans Blix? . . .Mr. Romney’s remark should have been the central story in news reports about Tuesday’s debate. But it wasn’t.
I disagree with Krugman in this respect. Rudy Giuliani's false remarks about Iran should have been the central story:
Iran is a threat, a nuclear threat, not just because they can deliver a nuclear warhead with missiles. They’re a nuclear threat because they are the biggest state sponsor of terrorism and they can hand nuclear materials to terrorists. And we saw just last week in New York an attempt by Islamic terrorists to attack JFK Airport; three weeks ago, an attempt to attack Fort Dix.The following are all lies by Rudy Giuliani:
(1) Iran is not a nuclear threat, though they MAy become one.
(2) Iran can NOT deliver a nuclear warhead with missiles as they have neither the nuclear warheads nor the missiles that could deliver them.
(3) Iran cannot hand weapons grade nuclear materials to terrorists as it does not have weapons grade nuclear materials.
(4) The Fort Dix terroists were home grown and had no ties to Iran.
I looked at the coverage of yesterday's debate and I saw none of this mentioned. And it is scary. For Rudy's logic requires the conclusion that Iran must be invaded. Frankly, if Rudy believes what he said, he should be urging President Bush to attack Iran immediately.
But Krugman's central point is dead on. Joe Klein, does that make us extremists? Does demanding journalists do their job make us extremists?
| < Off to NORML and Aspen, Open Thread | Cheney Blocked Philbin Promotion > |
