Questionable Role of Press

Per Roy Greenslade, I learn about a report concerning The Aspen Institute's annual Ideas Festival recently. Five journalists were discussing media credibility,

...when a questioner in the audience stopped the conversation cold.

Where, he asked, was the media during the run-up to the war in Iraq ? Why didn't news organizations demand better answers from the Bush Administration on the reasons for the war, such as Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction ? Isn't that your job ?

The journalists on the panel squirmed for a minute and then one said: "Reporters thrive on conflict. The war was going to be a hell of a story." A second panelist reluctantly, hesitatingly, agreed.

As the moderator, I was shocked. Were we really going to sit here in front of this audience and agree that the press had secretly welcomed the war as a way to sell newspapers and build ratings ? That seemed a scandal to me...

... It is certainly true that whatever the reason, the press, along with Congress, failed to nail the Administration down on why this war was necessary. I don't really think journalists relished or welcomed the war, but they did accept it as inevitable, too easily and too soon.