This article is a prime example (to me) of why I no longer trust the media to report the truth. "Cherry-picking" is not only done by the politicos, but by our media reporting (who have aligned themselves in their own little camps). The recent furor over the ABC 9/11 "Documdrama", as well as Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" further demonstrates the point (sadly, I know people that completely believe every word of
F 911).

So, I have a "chicken or egg" question (more for those older than I-- I was 10 years old watching the Vietnam War on TV).

Did we "lose our innocence" after discovering that the "most trusted man in America" (Walter Cronkite) might have "twisted the truth" and led to our eventual pull-out from Vietnam?

Was Cronkite the first journalist to use his power to change US policy? Or has the media "always been that way"?

Or can we put the blame on the internet for flooding the public with so much information that now anyone can "cherry-pick" their information?

My guess would be a little of all the above.

Spook Spin
A how-to guide for intelligence cherry-picking.
by Thomas Joscelyn
09/11/2006 5:00:00 PM

ON APRIL 23, 2006 Tyler Drumheller shared what was billed as a bombshell with 60 Minutes viewers. In a segment called "A Spy Speaks Out," the 26-year veteran of the CIA claimed that the Bush administration ignored intelligence collected from a well-placed source inside Saddam's regime because it conflicted with their desire to go to war with Iraq.

According to Drumheller, the CIA had learned from Saddam's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, that Iraq "had no active weapons of mass destruction program." CBS correspondent Ed Bradley followed up, "So in the fall of 2002, before going to war, we had it on good authority from a source within Saddam's inner circle that he didn't have an active program for weapons of mass destruction?" Drumheller replied, "Yes." The transcript from the 60 Minutes segment notes that Drumheller "says there was [no] doubt in his mind at all."

Bradley then got to the punch line, "It directly contradicts, though, what the president and his staff were telling us." Drumheller asserted, "The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming. And they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy."

Drumheller claimed that senior administration officials were initially very interested to hear what Sabri had to say. But once the White House and "the group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war" learned of Sabri's denial they were "no longer interested."

Drumheller remembered: "And we said, 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said, 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'"

There are good reasons to believe that Drumheller's account never really happened.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/690coaxy.asp

In Vietnam, the military leadership did not deal with the press or the public in an honest or forthright manner. It was not a matter of protecting the troops or operations; it was about protecting their careers. When the press in the field saw a different story than they were being told in Saigon, they were left to figure it out for themselves.

I would not defend any of their reporting, though, some did an excellent job. What I would say is that little has changed since the Civil War except the immediate nature of most news now-a-days.

These days, my eyes are sore from all the rolling they must do.

I have not yet seen Republicans in Congress threaten pulling broadcast licenses or attempting prior restraint against Moore, his producers (film), or any network (TV). The Democrats blatant attempt to violate the letter and spirit of the 1st Amendment (as they commonly do the 2nd) is what I found most disturbing. The Bush Administration came in for severe criticism in the ABC docudrama as well, but the producers weren't forced or pressured to edit or redact any of that.
Of course, the media did not raise a furore about the Democrat's threatening letters to the network (Disney/ABC) as they would have if Republicans had done it. All was quiet on the Liberal front.

Thats funny, I remember seeing it on the TV.