WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE?
Chris Matthews is worried because polls show that Americans think Iraq was involved in 9/11. Well, the press is sure taking care of that little problem, isn't it. Because when he asks Lee Hamilton about this on Hardball, Hamilton responds as follows:
LEE HAMILTON, 9/11 COMMISSION VICE CHAIRMAN: All we can do is state as clearly as we can what the evidence is that we have found. We have found no operational collaboration between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden with regard to attacks on the United States. That conclusion is a very firm one that we have reached.
What the governor referred to is also true. There are all kinds of ties. There are all kinds of connections. And it may very well have been that Osama bin Laden or some of his lieutenants met at some time with Saddam Hussein lieutenants.
They had contacts, but what we did not find was any operational tie with respect to attacks on the United States.
I don't think that distinction could have been drawn any more clearly. In fact, if anything, Hamilton goes further than the President did yesterday as far as what he's willing to say about who was meeting with whom.
So, what's the headline for this on the MSNBC web page?
9/11 commission: No link between bin Laden and Saddam
Cori,
In answer to your question. No they don't need a dictionary...but they do need to be named for what they are: LIARS who are deliberatly misleading the American people.
Posted by: Craig Landrith | June 18, 2004 at 03:28 PM
As far as I can see, the advent of the internet in the early/mid 1990's made two symbiotic industries obsolete. Not overnight, but the writing was there on the wall for anyone with a measure of foresight.
The two symbiotic industries to which I'm referring are, of course, Advertising (including the music industry), and Big Media(tm).
The internet, has given, for the first time in history, the ability for anyone to self-publish and self-promote, at a cost that virtually anyone can now afford.
Advertising and centralized news agencies are superfluous now...
And they know it.
This is why they cling to lies. Real power to the people scares the bejeezus out of them.
Peace
Posted by: Braintrust | June 18, 2004 at 04:43 PM
Considering that you have someone like Lee Hamilton (who is no loon by any means), practically standing on his chair, waving his hands and yelling, "No, dammit, THIS is what we're trying to say!"... apparently, the media had their story already written, and by gum, they're going to run it.
Posted by: Percy Dovetonsils | June 18, 2004 at 04:43 PM
Also odd is this...
Look at the transcript names, in the giant red
font at the top of each page, and watch what
happens on June 17th:
JUNE 10:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for June 10
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5189522/
JUNE 14:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for June 14
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5215735/
JUNE 15:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for June 15
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5224541/
JUNE 16:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for June 16
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5233756/
JUNE 17:
9/11 commission: No link between bin Laden and Saddam
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5228545/
Posted by: Media Hound | June 18, 2004 at 05:36 PM
Check out the AP's spin on Kean and Hamilton's comments, buried at the end of a report titled "9/11 panel cites communication woes":
The commission held its final day of public hearings as Bush challenged its finding,
announced Wednesday, that there had been no "collaborative relationship" between Saddam
Hussein and the al-Qaida terrorists responsible for the attacks.
"There was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida," Bush insisted Thursday. "This
administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam
and al-Qaida."
"We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, for
example, Iraqi intelligence agents met with bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida in the
Sudan."
Neither Kean, nor former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, the commission's vice chairman,
showed any inclination for a public spat with Bush on the issue.
Hamilton said, "The sharp differences that the press has drawn . . . are not that apparent
to me."
END OF AP STORY
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-probe18.html
Posted by: Media Hound | June 19, 2004 at 02:00 AM
I hadn't noticed the Hardball transcripts. That's pretty entertaining. If you didn't want to be a cynic you might suggest no "news was made" on the other nights, I suppose.
I don't think those industries, btw, were made obsolete, but they sure are on the run in some ways.
As Andrew Sullivan has been wont to say -- don't they know we have Nexis now? I guess these days you'd say, don't they know we have Google now?
Posted by: dauber | June 19, 2004 at 05:09 AM