Compare this post-facto assessment to the February 25 column by Times public editor Byron Calame, which asked whether his own paper was treating claims of Iranian support for Iraq’s Shiite militias — which could be used as a justification for war with Iran — with proper skepticism. Calame’s assessment was mixed. He was heartened by the generally skeptical tone of the Times’ reportage, in contrast to its credulous coverage of the WMD issue before the Iraq War. But Calame also noted that one article failed to follow stated Times policy on explaining why some sources were granted anonymity, and that another story failed to fully explain a dissenting view of the purported connection between Iran and Iraqi Shiite militias.
There’s fodder for both optimists and pessimists here. The good news, obviously, is that the critical self-awareness that was lacking in the Times’ WMD reportage is already being brought to bear on the Bush administration’s claims about Iran. (“WMD has informed everything we’ve done on Iran,” Times executive editor Bill Keller told Calame.) Then again, this attitudinal shift isn’t necessarily manifesting in print.
In the end, of course, debates about what the media learned from Iraq run up against a fundamental problem: unless the US finds itself in a situation that parallels the one that preceded the Iraq war, any conclusions will be limited and imprecise. If there’s a terrorist attack comparable to 9/11, if the president (whoever he or she is) pushes for an aggressive response, if Congress offers its support, and if, despite this unanimity and a pervasive atmosphere of fear, the press as a whole still scrutinizes the rationales for war with the toughness they deserve, we’ll have a clear answer. If we’re lucky, however, we’ll never really know.
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