Thursday, June 09, 2005

Conason on Downing Street



Once again allow me to call your attention to an important contribution to the discussion of the Downing Street Memo (in accordance with my responsibilities as a Big Brass Alliance member).

This one is an article by the excellent Joe Conason called The Last Laugh. The piece, like the Sunday Times article I linked to earlier, is primarily a savage slap in the face to the DC press corps, pointing out that when Bush gave a nonsensical, juvenile and largely incoherent response to the question posed to him about the Downing Street Memo (which shows, in case you're just joining us, that the president of the United States lied to Congress), the assembled press laughed at Bush's rapier wit.

No one followed up.

It will be interesting to see the press circle the wagons, as they certainly will, over the next few weeks as this story gets bigger and bigger, and the meta-story of the mainstream press's attempt to kill the story becomes more and more embarrassing to the Washington Post and New York Times.

Unfortunately, it seems likely to this commentator that the principle that has guided the U.S. press for at least my entire lifetime will be upheld in this case - when mistakes are madein the service of power, there are no significant consequences.

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