The real danger to America is bad reporting, not the Iraq War

Last night’s Daily Show featured ex-Bush press handler and Fox News anchor Tony Snow. At one point, Snow told show host Jon Stewart that the media have treated the president too harshly. Really? asked Stewart, who, like most of us, believes the media have failed to ask the Bushies the really tough questions vis-a-vis Iraq, for instance. Now comes this revealing story from, of all places, Fox News: In a speech to the Military Reporters and Editors Association, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez says Stewart is right: “unscrupulous reporting, solely focused on supporting an agenda and preconceived notions of the U.S. military.” Now, few news orgs have been more relentlessly pro-war than Fox News. So, sure, cheers. But before you bruise your hands applauding Fox News’ newfound instinct for self-examination, consider that reporter Heather Nauert found a way to spin even this news as an attack on liberals: the mainstream media, she says, failed to report Sanchez’s indictment, preferring instead to use it to pound Bush for mismanaging the war–except that, you know, that IS what Sanchez did when he called the war “a nightmare with no end in sight.” Nauert went on to attack the retired, decorated vet: she is “suspicious of the general’s timing. Sanchez is said to be considering writing a book. No doubt his frank statements about the media and the war in general were an attempt to lure in publishers.” No doubt.

Tags: Bush, Fox News, general, Heather Nauert, iraq, Jon Stewart, Ricardo Sanchez, The Daily Show, Tony Snow, War