We're going to spend the morning pretending that the US media didn't play a vital role in spreading the lies that led to the worst political crime of this generation: the invasion & destruction of Iraq? Or the worst crime of the prior generation: Vietnam? Or multiple other wars?
- The media figure who did the most to convince Americans of the lie that Saddam was in an alliance with Osama bin Laden, @JeffreyGoldberg, won a National Magazine Award for those fabrications while at the @NewYorker, then fell upward to be editor-in-chief of @TheAtlantic.
- The year after Goldberg wrote his heralded @NewYorker article on the nonexistent Saddam/AQ alliance, polls showed 70% of Americans (70%!!) believed Saddam *personally participated* in planning the 9/11 attack. Goldberg didn't cause that, but he's been rewarded ever since for it
- A great discussion from @CitationsPod of the central, indispensable role US media has always played, and continues to play, in maintaining and fueling support for Endless War and imperial policies. @chucktodd is insulted by this but it's factually true:
- There are, of course, always exceptions. McClatchy ran article after article in 2002 and 2003 contesting key war claims. @JamesFallows wrote this @TheAtlantic article questioning the war's key strategic premises. But in general, US media sustains wars:
