On Wednesday evening, Bill Moyers’ Journal presented “Buying the War,” a terrific special describing the failure of the U.S. media during the run-up to the Iraq invasion. If you missed it, you can watch the entire show here. [1]
Here’s the official description of the special:
Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln and delivered a speech in front of a giant “Mission Accomplished” banner. Despite profound questions and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House’s claim that the war was won. How did they get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 continue to go largely unreported?
Moyers devastatingly exposed the deeply rooted failures of the corporate media, point by point. The alleged October 6, 2003 “White House press conference” has to be one of the lowest and most embarrassing moments in American media history. You’ll have your chance to squirm through that event during the first five minutes of Moyers’ special.
Did I say that “Buying the War” vividly exposed the failures of the corporate media? Indeed. For me, the most telling part of Moyers’ special was the announcement of the list of sponsors at the very beginning. There were nine sponsors to “Buying the War” and all but one (Mutual of America) were private non-profit foundations.
Moyers will be back every Friday night with another one-hour show. Tonight, Moyers’ show will feature Jon Stewart, the topics being “Why do so many get their news and analysis from his fake news show?” Also, blogger Josh Marshall [2] will give his perspective on role of politics in the recent firings of federal prosecutors.
It is wonderful to see the true center of American Political spectrum given some air time. I write “center,” because Moyers has a long and established history of inviting guests representing points all along the spectrum of political opinion.
Having the opportunity to view the terrific journalism of Bill Moyers’ Journal made me wonder whether Moyers could ever have had a chance to bring his show back to PBS had the Democrats not taken back Congress.
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