Memo Gets More Mediocre Media Coverage

It's less than 24 hours since the Conyers hearings, but from what I can see so far, media coverage is disappointing. In fact, Congressman Conyers has lashed out at the Washington Post in particular, after it ran a single article by Dana Milbank, "Democrats Play House to Rally Against the War," which ridiculed the hearings and is littered with "mistakes, mischaracterizations and cheap shots":

In sum, the piece cherry-picks some facts, manufactures others out of whole cloth, and does a disservice to some 30 members of Congress who persevered under difficult circumstances, not of our own making, to examine a very serious subject: whether the American people were deliberately misled in the lead up to war.

This is disappointing because Milbank is a sometimes excellent reporter with good Washington contacts, and capable of much better. The article suggests that Washington groupthink it alive and well among the press corpse and their politician drinking-buddies alike.

The Post doesn't even feature the hearings on today's front page, although Tom Cruise's proposal gets a headline and another Security Fix headline is not what you might think. What have these guys got to hide? Write to the Post and let them know what you think.

Newsday has an article which again is quite dismissive:

While the memo shows concern over Washington's attitude, there's no smoking gun.

The Christian Science Monitor has some useful links and background but not much more of substance, refusing to take a stance on the issue.

The Boston Globe does a better, if minimal, job, but it's still not front page news.

Hello!!! Have the lights totally gone out in Bush's USA? As usual, you might as well get your news from Al Jazeera.

In the UK, the Guardian predictably does much better than its US counterparts, while the BBC has more coverage including reader feedback (let 'em know what you think!).

Cindy Sheehan's speech, given at the hearings, is online here.

The entire Conyers hearings can be seen online here.

A final word today from Justin Raimondo:

The "smoking gun," so to speak, is the admission that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." We knew that, too, but this raises an important question: who was fixing the intelligence? It's time to start taking names.