Peter Hoekstra, outgoing (what a great feeling to write that word!) Chair of the House Intelligence (one must ask whether the Committee will now deserve that word to describe it) Committee, started dissembling about the time needed to analyze the ISG report, when Norah [O'Donnell of MSNBC] cut in, “c’mon, this war has been going on for more than 3 years, and people are dying, what’s this about delay?”.

Hoekstra then mumbled something incoherent, and Norah quickly ended the interview.

I’ve long understood that the modern Western media is simply a device to bring advertising to the consumer; content is merely a hook. The fact of the matter is, the real powerplayers in Washington have no direct control over the way the media tells the story, but the advertisers do. If they think a news report will reflect badly on them, or at very least not sell papers so people can be blasted by their full page spreads, they will pull advertising and go somewhere else. And many of the biggest advertisers have ties to Washington through platform sponsorships and the like. I’m not claiming there’s some government/big business conspiracy to warp the news. That’s just the way things are, and the system needs to change.

Maybe now that Bush and his ilk are on the wane, the media will step out from being cowed by Bush and hold him accountable for the violence he has done to America, Americans and American ideals and many others around the world. Naaah.