Jay Bookman: D.C. press co-opted by war lies

Bookman in the AJC talks about the DC press lemmings: "The Washington establishment had decided that the nation had to be taken to war. That much was clear. But watching from the outside, it looked for all the world as though the leading lights in the Washington press had decided to play along with that decision.

Thus, information that advanced the argument for war was printed or broadcast without skepticism. Information that might have challenged that decision or raised doubt in the public mind was squelched. High-profile Washington journalists who had become more loyal to Washington than to journalism simply did not do their job, and the country has suffered as a result.

Today, with the invasion looking like the biggest foreign policy mistake in U.S. history, a lot of people in Washington, including members of the press, are trying to claim they had no way to know. That's baloney.

The administration's prewar claim of an alliance between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden had been transparently, ludicrously silly. Contrary to administration assertions, experts in and out of government had warned that occupying Iraq would be terribly expensive and difficult. But nobody listened, including most of the media.

Perhaps the most egregious practitioner was Judith Miller of The New York Times. She became an eager conduit for 'scoops' leaked to her by the administration. By publishing those leaks in the most respected newspaper in the country, she turned fabrication into fact and turned herself into a star. She got 'juice.'

These days, though, Miller is being squeezed of that juice like an overripe orange. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating charges that administration officials illegally leaked the identity of an undercover CIA operative to the press, including Miller. His grand jury probe is raising uncomfortable questions about the way information is used in Washington to reward the docile and punish the inquisitive."