The mainstream media's complicity in the Iraq War.

I came across this graphic and thought it should be shared so that when this transition of power occurs everything isn't swept under the rug. It shows how polls are really unreliable and how you can create a poll and affix it to any agenda you wish to promote. You can make a poll question about anything, in fact I have the option of turning this post into a poll as I type this.

What's insidious about this poll question is that it suggests that it's a forgone conclusion that Saddam Hussein had a role in the 9/11 attacks. The "not likely" response suggests "probably not" but that is surrounded by an air of uncertainty. The poll reads like this, "Was Saddam Hussein responsible for 9/11(We know he is but what's your "opinion")?

Here the Washington Post has sealed it. They can stand behind this and feign innocence when confronted with their blatant propaganda. They can say, "Oh, we didn't come to any conclusions, we're merely asking for opinions." But there it is for all of their consumers to digest, "Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks" and it has the Washington Post's stamp of approval.

Without the media, the Bush administration could not have carried out their atrocities in Iraq and this is just one example.

It wasn't just how complicit the corporate media was in cheerleading the Iraq fiasco, but how lazy they were in doing so. They took regime quotes and put them out unquestioned with little questioning or investigation. They not just shunned those who thought different (and proved to be right) but ridiculed them and still do. But for different reasons. It's as though they know many of us were onto the game and now they want to revise history and it's our memories that stand in their way.

Time will tell, but I think when history looks back at the Iraq mess, the media's role will be a central factor in what went wrong and those who participated will be viewed in a similar negative light. The ultimate accounting of Iraq is still to come...when our troops are gone and the finger pointing begins. While the media was a hero to many during Vietnam, they lost a ton of credibility in the Iraq invasion.

I still see this past election as a repudiation of the corporate media's "conventional wisdom" and their loss of credibility. My hopes are with this new administration, a new tone is set in the corporate media world and those who played pasty to the past regime will be put out to pasture where they belong...or editing the classifieds for a weekly shopper.