DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman
By Ivan G. Goldman
Mainstream media are at it again. First they refused to scrutinize Bush’s rush to invade Iraq. Four years and hundreds of thousands of deaths later, leading figures within these media have, to some degree, admitted their error.
But now they’re doing the same thing all over again. This time the subject is impeachment of Bush and Cheney. The big broadcast networks and print media (the latter led by the “liberal” Washington Post and New York Times) became ad hoc arms of the administration leading up to the terrible disaster in Iraq. Disregarding the weight of conflicting intelligence, they even even failed to ask why, if the “coalition of the willing” was really interested in finding WMD, did it order U.N. inspectors who'd proved their competence a hundred times over to leave?
But now they’re doing the same thing all over again. This time the subject is impeachment of Bush and Cheney. The big broadcast networks and print media (the latter led by the “liberal” Washington Post and New York Times) became ad hoc arms of the administration leading up to the terrible disaster in Iraq. Disregarding the weight of conflicting intelligence, they even even failed to ask why, if the “coalition of the willing” was really interested in finding WMD, did it order U.N. inspectors who'd proved their competence a hundred times over to leave?
KUCINICH TOO SHORT TO IMPEACH?
A movement to impeach Bush and Cheney, both of whom have admitted performing unconstitutional acts, has been building for years, but it’s done so quietly because the media refuse to pay attention, making the mission infinitely more difficult than it ought to be. When they do pay attention, they treat would-be impeachers such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson as flakes. The Washington Post assigned some kind of attack dog to Kucinich who, rather than examine his case, chided him about his lack of -- get this -- height.
Politicians have been told in as many ways as you can tell them, that if they pursue impeachment it’s open season. They’ll get treated with the similar mindless but effective ridicule. Nancy Pelosi got the message fast. Shortly after taking over as House Speaker she announced she would not follow a course of impeachment, and that's before any evidence was subpoenaed. Perhaps she was worried because she’s even shorter than Kucinich.
When Rep. John Murtha raised the specter of impeachment, the media treated him like a kind of eccentric uncle. Good ole John. What’ll he think of next? Rep. John Conyers prepared a lengthy dossier of impeachment evidence, but apparently warned off by Pelosi, he backed off from the process.
A movement to impeach Bush and Cheney, both of whom have admitted performing unconstitutional acts, has been building for years, but it’s done so quietly because the media refuse to pay attention, making the mission infinitely more difficult than it ought to be. When they do pay attention, they treat would-be impeachers such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson as flakes. The Washington Post assigned some kind of attack dog to Kucinich who, rather than examine his case, chided him about his lack of -- get this -- height.
Politicians have been told in as many ways as you can tell them, that if they pursue impeachment it’s open season. They’ll get treated with the similar mindless but effective ridicule. Nancy Pelosi got the message fast. Shortly after taking over as House Speaker she announced she would not follow a course of impeachment, and that's before any evidence was subpoenaed. Perhaps she was worried because she’s even shorter than Kucinich.
When Rep. John Murtha raised the specter of impeachment, the media treated him like a kind of eccentric uncle. Good ole John. What’ll he think of next? Rep. John Conyers prepared a lengthy dossier of impeachment evidence, but apparently warned off by Pelosi, he backed off from the process.
ADMISSIONS OF CRIMINAL ACTS
But the facts are indisputable – doctored intelligence, illegal wiretapping and reading our mail without warrants, the suspension of habeas corpus. All these acts are punishable felonies and there’s ample evidence, including their own admissions, tying the tin cans of criminality to the tails of Bush and Cheney.
Corporate media took about three years to concede some of their errors on the war, though they never quite owned up to their active complicity. The same slow-burning truth fuse is burning on impeachment. But while it takes its time, people are dying. Our troops, if I may paraphrase Bill Moyers, are being sacrificed on the altar of Bush’s ego. And thanks to U.S. escalation, our casualty rate has been rising and will continue to rise even though the last election and the blue-ribbon commission on Iraq called for the White House to take an opposite course.
Don’t let anyone get away with telling you the pro-impeachment movement can’t be taken seriously. Removing Bush and Cheney for their high crimes and misdemeanors is the logical, patriotic recourse to the most felonious, incompetent administration in U.S. history.
But the facts are indisputable – doctored intelligence, illegal wiretapping and reading our mail without warrants, the suspension of habeas corpus. All these acts are punishable felonies and there’s ample evidence, including their own admissions, tying the tin cans of criminality to the tails of Bush and Cheney.
Corporate media took about three years to concede some of their errors on the war, though they never quite owned up to their active complicity. The same slow-burning truth fuse is burning on impeachment. But while it takes its time, people are dying. Our troops, if I may paraphrase Bill Moyers, are being sacrificed on the altar of Bush’s ego. And thanks to U.S. escalation, our casualty rate has been rising and will continue to rise even though the last election and the blue-ribbon commission on Iraq called for the White House to take an opposite course.
Don’t let anyone get away with telling you the pro-impeachment movement can’t be taken seriously. Removing Bush and Cheney for their high crimes and misdemeanors is the logical, patriotic recourse to the most felonious, incompetent administration in U.S. history.
