Howard Fineman
There’s a sense that many in the media have never come to terms with their Iraq War failures. But when some of them do, seemingly with good intentions, they fall pretty short.
Take Howard Fineman of the Huffington Post. In the run-up to Iraq, he was a star correspondent at Newsweek, giving him unique access to U.S. political leaders.
Writing at the Huffington Post (3/16/13), Fineman laments:
Too few questions were asked, too many assumptions were allowed to go unchallenged, too many voices of doubt were muffled or rejected in a toxic atmosphere of patriotism, ignorance and political fear.
He adds: “It began with fear and, for some journalists including me, misguided patriotism.”
Fineman recalls a November 2001 interview he conducted with Bush, where he blurted out that Saddam Hussein was “evil.” And with that, “The rest, sadly, is the history we now mark on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War.”
Well, not so fast. That interview became a Newsweek article (12/3/01), co-written by Fineman, that was one of the most blatantly propagandistic pieces of journalism produced in the post-9/11 era. As FAIR noted at the time (Action Alert, 11/30/01) , the article posed this question:
From where does George W. Bush—or Laura, for that matter—draw the strength for this grand mission, the ambitious aim of which is nothing less than to ‘rid the world of evildoers’?
Some other highlights, highlighted by FAIR:
- “The First Team has been exemplary in the eyes of the American people,” declared Newsweek. Bush “has been a model of unblinking, eyes-on-the-prize decisiveness. His basic military strategy…has proved astute. He has been eloquent in public, commanding in private. He had survived the first blows, made the right calls and exceeded expectations—again.”
- “Another source of strength,” noted the magazine, “is physical conditioning.” According to Newsweek, Bush “is in the best shape of his life, a fighting machine who has dropped 15 pounds and cut his time in the mile to seven minutes…. He feels destined to win—and to serve.”
- The president doesn’t read many books, Newsweek explained, because “he’s busy making history, but doesn’t look back at his own, or the world’s…. Bush would rather look forward than backward. It’s the way he’s built.”
The fact that Fineman is reflective at all is better than nothing, but what’s on the the record matters—and that record shows a remarkable level of enthusiasm for the job of advocating for Bush’s “eyes-on-the-prize decisiveness.” He went above and beyond not asking enough questions or allowing assumptions to go unchallenged.
He concludes the piece by writing: “I hope I am wiser now. I hope we all are.” Well, sure, let’s hope so. In the meantime, Fineman is still working in elite journalism, which teaches us the most important lesson: There aren’t many consequences for getting a big story so catastrophically wrong.
So what questions is Fineman asking of essentially the same policy propagated by this administration now that he is “wiser”?
That to me would evince “good intentions”
Not a pathetically misleading lament for past transgressions.
He hopes he is Wiser, he hope we all are. However, they have offered nothing in the current state of the “Corpress” to show that hope is either justified or going to live long.
It’s the old straw man; offer up an apology for ‘being wrong’ and then do the same bullshit all over; that way people will see that your really meant it…..
Good point, but your own U.S.-centric attitude shows.
You say “the run-up to Iraq” as shorthand for “the run-up to the war on (or invasion of) Iraq.” This may be media shorthand to you, but it demeans the country and people who suffered most.
Similarly, too many Americans refer to “Vietnam” (instead of the war on Vietnam) as if it was foremost an American problem. I know it’s hard to put on others’ hats when you’re at the centre of the empire, but your vision is limited if you wear the emperor’s hat.
A crying shame journalists didn’t do their job and investigate like they should have. Guess they all believed the lies on FAUX NOOZ and couldn’t bring themselves to be criticized by right-wing media. The war criminals got away with murder by the media hoax in the USA. Hope they’re all happy with their deliberate and false reporting.
I’m guessing he’s not any wiser. That’s some deeply bad propaganda old Team Player Howard spewed out. Very shameful and stupid lies; he should be deeply embarassed, but he obviously isn’t, or he would have pointed to his stupid utterances and said, “Wow! I’m sorry I did that.” But he didn’t. Like the other toadies in his pack, he just wants to get the unpleasantness behind him for now. On to Iran!
The strange thing this piece AND all the comments miss- is the world in retrospect.We live in a world that lives on a precipice.If Iran goes nuclear(and they will) so to will much of the middle east.Saudi Arabia,Egypt.Can you imagine if Saddam was in that mix.Thank God everyday that is not so.Actually thank Bush ,and the sacrifice of our men.You libs look at this as a zero sum game.Bush and most of the worlds intel organizations were fooled by Saddams dangerous shell game,and made a mistake on WMDs so all that came after was wrong.If only you looked at Obama and healthcare in that way.He laid out the numbers.They were wrong.So everything that comes after is wrong.
Eric the problem with Fair is that THEY often are off topic.DHS has just bought over a billion rounds of Ammo (more than we used in 24 years of war)and near 300 tanks for what purpose no one knows.This week they are buying 300 thousand rounds of hollow points(for training) that even the navy seals and marines dont use for training.The press and FAIR are silent.Yet we beat into the ground mistakes reporters made 13 years ago.Stay on topic??????How about you understand that your moronic setting of the template begs people to get OFF topic.Fair simply trolls for any foothold they can find for in their quest to prop up this idiocy.Im betting the day the economy collapses they will have a lead story “Rush Limbaugh insults Beyonce”.Sheeple.Friggin sheeple
correction….3000 Tanks!!!!