Washington Post Editors Again Refuse To Label GOP Falsehoods What They Are: False
December 1, 2007 -- 8:01 AM EST // //
You'd think that The Washington Post's editors would have been chastened by yesterday's courageous New York Times piece that aggressively fact-checked Rudy Giuliani's multiple falsehoods and called them out for what they are -- "false."
Coming just a day after WaPo's much-criticized article on Barack Obama, which recycled "rumors" that he's a Muslim without calling out those rumors as falsehoods, the Times piece was particularly embarrassing to the Post. Indeed, Post cartoonist Tom Toles relentlessly mocked his own paper yesterday for this failing.
Yet today comes more evidence that WaPo editors still are unwilling to acknowledge the concept that some assertions are "true" and others are "false," or even "lies." This morning's Post has a rather timid piece on Karl Rove's claim that the Bush administration didn't really push for a vote on the Iraq war resolution bill before the 2002 midterm elections, and that only Congress wanted this. Here's how the piece plays it:
Rove's Version of 2002 War Vote Is DisputedBut again, this assertion is not "in dispute" -- it's demonstrably false. And Rove is not trying to "shape" history here -- he's trying to falsify it.Former White House aide Karl Rove said yesterday it was Congress, not President Bush, who wanted to rush a vote on the looming war in Iraq in the fall of 2002, a version of events disputed by leading congressional Democrats and even some former Rove colleagues.
Rove said that the administration did not want lawmakers to vote on a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq that soon because it would "make things move too fast," before Bush could line up international allies, and politicize the issue ahead of midterm elections. But Democrats and some Republicans involved with the issue at the time said yesterday that Bush wanted a quick vote.
The fresh clash over the five-year-old vote made plain how political leaders on all sides are trying to shape the history of that moment.
The proof of this is right out there on the public record. Here's what Bush himself said at a press conference with reporters on September 19, 2002:
QUESTION: Mr. President, are you going to send Congress your proposed resolution today? And are you asking for a blank check, sir?This just couldn't be clearer. Bush himself sent the war resolution to Congress and demanded action before the elections. Yep -- what Rove said is false. No doubt about it whatsoever.THE PRESIDENT: I am sending suggested language for a resolution. I want -- I've asked for Congress' support to enable the administration to keep the peace. And we look forward to a good, constructive debate in Congress. I appreciate the fact that the leadership recognizes we've got to move before the elections. I appreciate the strong support we're getting from both Republicans and Democrats, and look forward to working with them.
The WaPo article did have a bit of evidence against Rove's version of events and did make a very oblique reference to this Bush press conference. But the piece devoted one brief sentence to it and buried it way down towards the very end of the piece, even though there couldn't possibly be a piece of info more central to this story. And the paper failed to point out the obvious -- that the fact that Bush sent the reso to Congress and called for action before the midterms conclusively and unequivocally proves that Rove is lying.
As Glenn Greenwald notes, the unwillingness of news orgs to challenge GOP lies by taking that extra step and using the F-word -- "false" -- is "one of the most significant problems in how our establishment media functions." And as Times proved yesterday, when this extra step is taken, the world doesn't get knocked off its axis. Yet WaPo's editors -- perhaps out of fear, perhaps for other not particularly admirable reasons -- simply refuse to label GOP falsehoods what they are.
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