A Washington Post article exposing the specific details of several pre-war doubts by Bush Administration aides and anlaysts in the lead-up to war ran on page A1 in the early Saturday editions of WaPo’s Sunday paper. By Sunday morning, however, the story had its headlined softened and was subsequently buried on page A26.
The story, by WaPo staff writer Walter Pincus, details the doubts of the administration’s own intelligence analysts concerning WMD, Munitions Plants and Saddam Hussein’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles program, all of which were widely trumpeted as justifications for going to war by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and others within the administration during the build-up to the War on Iraq.
Pincus’ Page 1 item, which originally ran in Saturday afternoon editions of the Sunday paper and on the front page of the WaPo website was headlined “More Evidence of Bush Aide’s Doubts on Iraq — Analysts Questioned Most Intelligence”.
By Sunday, however, the article had been pushed back to page 26 with the softer headline, “Prewar Findings Worried Analysts”.
The Washington Post has come under fire lately by critics decrying the lack of news coverage critical to the Bush Administraton. It was nearly two weeks before WaPo even mentioned the appearance of the “Downing Street Memo” which some have cited as a “smoking gun” demonstrating that George W. Bush lied to the American People and Congress during the build-up to war in Iraq. Several sources have called the information included in the memo as evidence of “an impeachable offense”.
That memo, written in July 2002 — a full eight months before going to war — describes the Administration as already having decided to topple Hussein through military means and that the intelligence was being “fixed around the policy”. Several days after 89 U.S. Congressmen sent an inquiry to Bush asking about the information in the memo, WaPo finally ran their first news item to mention the memo. On page 18.
A source at the Washington Post has commented that it’s not unusual for stories to move off of page 1 between the Saturday and Sunday editions of the Sunday paper. Yet the move all the way back to page 26 and the softened headline certainly raises questions.
The Page 1 version of the story, originally linked to by the Internet news site RAW STORY early Saturday evening, retained the same URL on the WaPo website as the move was made and the headline and page number changed. The bulk of the article was unchanged as the move was made, though there were a couple of minor changes made to the text with little effect on the story itself.
The BRAD BLOG has contacted both Walter Pincus and his WaPo editor, Scott Vance, for comment and/or explanation for the move. We will update this item with additional information if and when we hear back from them.
(Thanks to Emailer David Griscom for the tip on this story!)
UPDATE: Looks like our friend Jesselee over at The Stakeholder was getting a similar scent on this story last night as we were looking into it as well. He has additional information on WaPo’s burying of various Pincus articles as well as an admission/apology for same by WaPo editors last summer. Despite that self-flagellation nearly a year ago, it would seem that WaPo is still in the business of going easy on the Bush Administration.
Sounds like WaPo doesn’t want to offend the WH or they my put Jeffie back in WaPo’s spot … not a lot of difference anyway.
Bury the news, bury the soldiers. Its all the same to the MSM.
Hi, Dredd and Brad – the MSM is burying itself. Good riddance, I say. Time for the NewMedia…it’s been born, is now walking, and soon will be running rings around the "old" status quo.
I agree Peggy. Corporate controled media (CCM?)will not change. They’re a dying breed along with the Radical Regressive so-called Christian fanatics. We’ve got such amazing talent here in the NewMedia! It’s a beautiful thing to be part of, isn’t it?
I swear between this place, The Brad Show, Raw Story, Kos, TPM and CCN (Clark Community Network) I’m more informed than I’ve ever been in my life!
The CCM is for entertainment NOT information. I was dyin’ today watching "The Connection." Every guest on there going on and on about how horrible it was that Newsweek relied on an "unreliable" source and people DIED and were injured because of it!!! I sent them an email just laughing at the absurdity of it – asked if they’d heard of the Downing Street Memo and the fact that the president of the "free" world flat out LIED to the world to get us into a WAR causing untold numbers of dead and injuried.
Then I turned it off. No Ron Reagan today and it was unbearable!
I’m so DISGUSTED with the main stream media that I don’t know where to begin. I’m so tired of them burying stories that the American people need to know about. When the American people find out that this is being done to them, THEY WILL NOT BE HAPPY.
America’s Work Stories
http://usaworkstories.blogspot.com
usaworkstories@aol.com
Great grab, Brad!
Listening to the Brad Show over the weekend, I was thinking what an amazing sign of progress it is that Brad, Raw Story, and other bloggers and netizens are now in regular touch with and interviewing prominent people like Jim Lampley, Senator Durbin, and Representative Conyers.
The corporate media are at various points in the ignore you – laugh at you – fight you sequence, but increasingly, people who count are taking the blogosphere seriously.
The web is a bigger paradigm shift than the printing press.
Internet for everyone!
…and for those who don’t have access yet: No news is better than Fox News!
Boycott corporate media.
Corporate media sucks!
viva la Revolution!
This BBC documentary on Blair and Bush’s lies is airtight:
http://www.overcast.pwp.blueyon...qtonytruth.htm
I urge all Bradblog readers to please check out this downloadable BBC Panorama documentary. It’s a 1 hour masterpiece on what Bush and Blair knew before the war. It includes mention of the Downing Street Minutes, and much, much more.
Bejammin075 –
Oh wow! I’m tearing my hair out, because, you see, I have a VERY slow ‘net connection. And I WANT TO SEE THAT piece! Satellite service, here I come…
Could you maybe summarize?
Ben #7 and others: I have dial-up so video is not an option. It takes waaay to long. Could you all send links to transcripts when possible? Thanks.
Pathetic, disappointing, sad that the media nowadays give up any sense of ethics and ideal and turn into weak-kneed, meek, docile sellers of infotainment, compliant with the Power.
And even more disappointing considering that the Downing Street Memo shows facts of absolute gravity: that the Bush administration has conspired, lied, deceived, abused power, betrayed the trust of people who have voted them. Despite this, despite the complaints of readers, despite the lack of previous adequate coverage, despite the initiative of 89 Congressmen, the Washington post timidly buries an important article on the memo and intelligence on Iraq from page 1 to page 26.
Surely if there had been a Janet Jackson showing her tits, all papers would talk about it in the front page.
What sort of disgusting thing have the US media turned into?
One of the contributors to my blog mentioned the Pincus piece on Saturday, commending the Post for putting it on Page A1. I had to update it today when someone clued us in on the change.
My White House writer, Eric Brewer, had the opportunity to ask Scott McClellan about the memo in the briefing today (Monday). Scottie very noticeably declined to disavow the accuracy of the comments in the memo.
So far as I can tell, Eric is the first person to pose the question in a formal White House briefing, although I know McClellan said something to CNN about it elsewhere. It’s frickin’ unbelieveable that not even the Post’s White House correspondent has asked, and you’d think, given it’s history with reporting on Iraq, the NYTimes might show a bit of interest as well.
To reiterate: Eric specifically asked if McClellan was saying that Jack Straw and Sir Richard Dearlove’s comments in the memo were wrong, and Scottie wouldn’t say "Yes."
Thank you for the memo, Weldon. Scottie wouldn’t lie? Even he? Then we HAVE our smoking gun! Something so irrefutable even dedicated liars won’t lie about! My God…shout it to the hills, and let it echo to heaven and back again!!!
My sentiments exactly, Peg. Good goin’, Weldon!
Shame on the Wash. Post. They should have the headline in bold letters "Bush Proven to be a Liar: Start impeachment now"
I miss the old days when the media kept people informed about what was going on around them. Bush lied… People died
Thank you so much, Mr. Weldon. This IS good news.
Beam Scotty out, now.
Thanks for this post; I thought I was imagining it when I glanced at the early addition in the supermarket and then saw the expurgated version when my paper was delivered the next morning. Here is what I asked Howard Kurtz Monday, May 23rd and his response:
Washington, D. C.: In the Post’s early Sunday edition available Saturday night Walter Pincus’ article referencing the Downing Street memo’s claims that the administration "fixed" the intelligence and facts leading up to the invasion of Iraq, was above the fold on the front page with the headline, "More Evidence of Bush Aides’ Doubts on Iraq." But come Sunday morning the article was off the front page and all the way back on pages 25-6. Why was a story the Post finally deemed important enough to be front paged, taken off? Did some editor go off the reservation on this one, do you think, and sneak it onto the front page?
Howard Kurtz: It wasn’t quite "taken off." The Sunday edition, known as the bulldog, commonly fronts stories that aren’t on Page 1 in the "real" Sunday paper because it goes to press either Friday night or early Saturday morning, before any Saturday news has taken place.
Kurtz’s response here is pretty typical of how he sidesteps reader queries in that he does not directly address the question of the relative importance of the story and why it was worth front page placement one day and oblivion the next in the "real" paper. The Pincus article was replaced on the front page in part by a picture of a horse race.
I have a copy of the Downing street memo and it seems that nothing has been done about it. The press needs to be ashamed. Bush is the biggest liar in the White House.
I have a copy of the Downing street memo and it seems that nothing has been done about it. The press needs to be ashamed. Bush is the biggest liar in the White House.