WELCOME to the debut of “The Truth Is!”, a blog of reporting and commentary that aims to be informative, thoughtful and provocative. At least initially, the blog will have a strong heartland flavor by virtue of the connection of a number of us to Cowles family journalism. I am former editor of the Des Moines Register’s opinion pages. Another contributor, Michael Gartner, is former editor of the paper; he later served as president of NBC News. Another former Register editor who has agreed to contribute, Geneva Overholser, is director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of journalism. Followers of the blog will have access also to the work of Herbert Strentz of Des Moines, a close Register and other newspaper watcher who once headed Drake University’s journalism school. Bill Leonard, a longtime Register editorial writer, will add insights.

“The Truth Is!” will be supervised by my daughter, Marcia Wolff, a communications lawyer for 20 years with Arnold and Porter (Washington, D.C.). Invaluable technical assistance in assembling and maintaining the blog is provided by my grandsons Julian Cranberg, a college first-year, and Daniel Wolff, a high school senior.

If you detect a whiff of nepotism in this operation, so be it. All of it is strictly a labor of love. —Gil Cranberg

Friday, February 22, 2013

Gilbert Cranberg: DECEIT AND TRICKERY IN HIGH PLACES

Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC commentator, wrote in “Drift,” her 2012 book, that “Starting the war in Iraq took deceit and trickery on the part of the Bush administration (and severe chickenshittery on the part of Congress.”) The hour-long MSNBC documentary, “Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War,” that aired February 18, is an elaboration of the deceit-trickery theme.

The program discloses nothing new or startling about the origins of the Iraq war. It’s nonetheless worth watching. If you missed it the first time, it can be seen when the network runs it again on the evening of March 15.

It can’t be shown too often. It’s not every day that our government lies the country into a war of aggression. Americans can’t be reminded enough of the need for skepticism and vigilance to prevent a recurrence. As a public service, MSNBC should re-run Hubris at least annually. In so doing it should re-work the material to eliminate weak spots.

Among them is the failure to emphasize the part played by the press in getting the country into war. Hubris gives a brief mention to the press but not nearly enough. And while MSNBC is at it, it should report how the network itself, including Rachel Maddow and its other journalists, covered the “deceit and trickery.” Were they, as were all too many news organizations and their reporters, simply conduits for misinformation?
Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State in the Bush Administration and who played a pivotal role in convincing Americans to support a war against Iraq, later admitted his culpability and called his speech to the United Nations laying out the trumped-up case for war “one of my momentous failures.”

There have not been nearly enough comparable mea culpas. If the press, as an institution, has done soul searching about its malpractice in covering the run-up to the Iraq war, it has been kept well hidden. So now, as MSNBC basks in deserved praise for Hubris, would be a good time for the network to look back at its coverage and let viewers know what it finds.

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