Yet again it appears that the muckety-muckrakers of the mainstream media in the United States have opted to serve as lapdogs to their Beltway masters rather than watchdogs for the public. Meanwhile, their counterparts across the pond and elsewhere on the planet are reporting stories that not only fail to make it above the fold in our local rags but are simply folded out of the news cycle. Consider the following two news items, both of which seem to expose Emperor Bush as having no clothes and were dutifully picked up by the Common Dreams website (but not most major media outlets). The first article is courtesy of Agence France Presse, the second courtesy of The Guardian / UK…
Washington is Losing ‘War on Terror’: Experts
Despite high-profile arrests, security operations and upbeat assessments from the White House, the United States is losing its “global war on terror,” experts warn.
Five years after Washington launched its hunt for those responsible for the September 11 attacks, the world has not become a safer place, and a new large-scale strike against America at some point appears likely, they say.
Even the killing last month of Al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, hailed by the White House as a major blow against the terror network, has not dented its ability to recruit new militants or mount attacks.
In May the influential US magazine Foreign Policy and a Washington-based think-tank questioned 116 leading US experts — a balanced mix of Republicans and Democrats — on the progress of the US campaign against terrorism.
Among others, they consulted a former secretary of state, two former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and dozens of the country’s top security analysts.
The result? Eighty-four percent believe the United States is losing the “war on terror,” 86 percent that the world has become a more dangerous place in the past five years, and 80 percent that a major new attack on their country was likely within the next decade. more…
Bush Told Cheney to Discredit Diplomat Critical of Iraq Policy
President George Bush directed his vice-president, Dick Cheney, to take personal charge of a campaign to discredit a former ambassador who had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq, it emerged yesterday.
The revelation by the National Journal, a respected weekly political magazine, that Mr. Bush took a personal interest in countering damaging allegations by the former ambassador, Joe Wilson, reveals a White House that was extraordinarily sensitive to any criticism of its prewar planning. It also returns the focus of the criminal investigation into the outing of a CIA agent to the White House only weeks after the senior aide Karl Rove was told he would not face prosecution.
The Journal said Mr. Bush made the admission in a July 24 2004 interview in the Oval Office with the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, who is leading the investigation into the outing of the CIA agent, Valerie Plame. Ms. Plame is married to Mr. Wilson, who says her cover was broken in retaliation after he accused the administration of knowingly using false information on Saddam Hussein’s weapons programme.
According to the National Journal, Mr. Bush told prosecutors he directed Mr. Cheney to disclose classified information both to defend his administration and to discredit Mr. Wilson.
Elsewhere, the magazine quotes other government officials as saying that Mr. Bush was very anxious to use classified information to counter Mr. Wilson’s charges, telling the vice-president: “Let’s get this out.” more…
Kmareka.com 
Wait–! This can’t Be! The MSM is a bunch of liberal commie-pinko tree lovers who collect welfare checks and burn flags at gay weddings!
Thank you, Mr Jaffe, for pointing out both of these stories. The right wingers have done such an excellent job of screaming about the so-called liberal media that a lot of correction is needed. They make a big deal that most reporters are left-of-center. That may be, but it’s the editors who put the stories in the paper or on the air, and, somehow, we never hear much about their views. I can vouch from personal experience that the local rag, and one of the more popular local news stations twisted stories to make the local republicans look good at the expense of their critics.