Oh, isn’t that cute, a story broke about Bush incompetence–it must be nothing.
There’s a reason it’s breaking now–because the administration was hoping it wouldn’t break until after the election. Poo-pooing it is asinine.
But no, that’s not enough
And the Bushies find it curious that so few news shops are covering the Oil-for-Food scandal. That disgraced United Nations program helped Hussein plunder billions to prop up his murderous regime. Wouldn’t covering Oil-for-Food, the Bushies ask, help prove that a corrupt UN didn’t want war with Iraq to disrupt lucrative payoffs in France, Russia and many other countries?
Given Chalabi appears to be the one with the evidence, why doesn’t the press ask Chalabi’s allies in and around the US government for the evidence? Maybe there’s a reason it isn’t public either?
This editorial made me furious yesterday morning, even as it is just par for the course for the Trib. Of course, now that their major premise–“nobody’s really sure if the weapons were still there when the war started”–has been completely discredited, I’m SURE they will revisit the issue and admit their mistake.
Also, did anyone else notice how they made deliberate mention of some crazy ravings from Linda Chavez about Kerry’s anti-war protests being directed by Communists? Interesting how the Trib introduces that gem, but doesn’t bother to discredit it as they do the much more valid, reality-based charges against the Bush administration.
I wonder how the Trib will word their supportive editorial if and when Bush suspends habeus corpus (or sets up a new round of internment camps etc. etc.–name your horrible anti-democratic, proto-fascist action, nothing is impossible with Bush at the helm). They know no shame.
I watched the Cegelis-Hyde debate last night. That guy looks frail.
Hyde was slinging shit about Oil-for-Food.
What’s the crime here? Iraq was selling oil? And making money?
Why was this illegal? To make sure Iraq didn’t have any WMD. So the goal of the Oil-for-Food Program was being met even if there was an undisclosed amount of personal profiteering.
The Tribune tried to link the Oil-for-Food profits to the weapons being used by insurgents against US forces. Apparently the Europeans were supposed to foresee that Bush was going to invade Iraq on flimsy pretenses.
But the real source of the weapons used against US forces is really a weapons facility Rumsfeld’s invasion plan failed to secure. Where’s the Trib outrage about this?
Anyone remember the last time the Trib claimed that a somewhat late-breaking, sensational charge was just politics, and not to be believed or factored into our judgments??
The Trib sure remembers. They spent the next three years apologizing editorially for having told us all that the licenses-for-bribes charges of Joe Power were false in their enthusiastic endorsement of everyone’s favorite soon-to-be-indicted ex-governor, the destroyer of the Illinois Republican Party, George Ryan.
What would it take to create a new a new major media outlet in Chicago?
Which second-tier media outlets could be bought and spruced up?
If there was a quality alternative the Trib could be beat in the market place.
Carl,
I keep hoping the Sun-Times will drift back to the middle, at least, if not even a little bit left–but unfortunately I don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to buy it. Believe me, if i could, I would. (I was editor of my high school newspaper, how hard could it be? ;-))
One can also imagine scenarios where the Chicago Defender or Daily Herald could really transform and become true competitors to the Tribune and Sun-Times, but I’ll admit the possibility is slim, at best.
How about an online-only Chicago news source? I’m imagining something like a local edition of Salon. I’d pay for that.
Chicago Jason,
I was a citizen of Journalism City at Boy’s State, so count me in if you every buy the Sun-Times.
— So-Called “Austin Mayor”
Austin Mayor,
Good enough for me–I’ll put you down for “Editor in Chief.”
Thanks for posting that. The Trib conveniently ignores the IAEA seal on the facility, among other things.
I swear if Bush is elected, I will probably blow a coronary artery at some point.
The Trib is being dishonest, to say the least, they had their editorial page manager and letters editor on NPR this week trying to explain their endorsement of Bush. It was more than pathetic, trying to explain why they’ve never endorsed a Democrat for president.
Give the Sun-Times credit for waking up to growing disaster, at home and abroad, of this admin. I didn’t feel at any point encouraged by their daily editorial stance that they would be honest enough to endorse Kerry.
The lengths Bush supporters have had resort to in defending him would be laughable if there wasn’t American and Iraqi lives being lost daily because of this doofus.