CNN's Jessica Yellin on our corporate media

For all of the heat the former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is taking for his book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, there's little question that a great deal about what he says in the book is true, and I'm only going from memory going back to the beginning of the Iraq War. The press simply laid down and reported what the administration wanted it to support, in the time of militant and belligerent patriotism. People like CNN's Jessica Yellin (and McClellan) are now beginning to step forward to reveal to what extent this took place.

Good for her. I really do like Anderson Cooper - he's one of the few shining stars that CNN has right now, but his surprise at Yellin's comments is borderline laughable. Surely he was exposed to at least a little pressure from network bigwigs at CNN to cover the GWOT in a favorable light during the run-up to the War in Iraq. I can't think of a domestic-based major media outlet that raised sufficient questions about why we were going to war. I may be wrong, but I can't think of any. And I'm including traditionally viewed "liberal" outlets as well - the New York Times, WaPo, CNN, etc. Okay, Air America Radio is one, but that doesn't have the reach that major media outlets enjoy.

This will be an emerging story in the years to come, without questions. Especially now that the Bush administration is coming to a merciful end, and there's money to be made selling tell-all books.

I believe I'm stating the obvious here, but I haven't heard this point nearly enough in the media, but it's now pretty clear that Iraq is to Bush as Vietnam is to LBJ. The Vietnam War left the Johnson presidency in tatters, along with his presidential legacy. I don't think there's any question at this point that Iraq will do the same thing to Bush in the years to come (with a big assist from lots of smaller failings, led by Hurricane Katrina).