Editor's note: Howard Kurtz is the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and is Newsweek's Washington bureau chief. He is also a contributor to the website Daily Download.
(CNN) – The 10th anniversary this month of the invasion of Iraq will remind most people of a divisive and dubious war that toppled Saddam Hussein but claimed the lives of nearly 4,500 Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians.
What it conjures up for me is the media's greatest failure in modern times.
Major news organizations aided and abetted the Bush administration's march to war on what turned out to be faulty premises. All too often, skepticism was checked at the door, and the shaky claims of top officials and unnamed sources were trumpeted as fact.
Read more of Howie's two cents here.
Now more than ever, the press is a part of every story it covers. And CNN's "Reliable Sources" is one of television's only regular programs to examine how journalists do their jobs and how the media affect the stories they cover. Host Howard Kurtz is the nation's premier media critic, and each week he questions print reporters, television correspondents and Internet bloggers about how the press is covering the major stories of the week.
Tune in every Sunday at 11am ET.
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Could Wolf Blitzer squeeze a story, maybe some investigative journalism on the topic of the oil indiustry's contributions toward our engagement in Iraq, in between the commercials with the very responsible looking attractive blonde lady representing the American Oil and Gas Industry? The following link, on the CNN site, sheds a little light on the topic. Surely this deserves a deeper, more thorough investigation, even at this late date. I've heard Wolf refer to some new special, but have not seen it. Maybe I missed it. We need a much more honest and straightforward airing of why we choose to 'trump up' justification for $2 trillion and thousands of Americans, and Iraqis, and turn a blind eye to Syria, or African genocide. http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter
In 2003 the American people were manipulated into a war based on fear of terror, false information and a deluded sense of patriotism. The media are no less scrutinizing today than 10 years ago – barely questioning what we are still doing in Afghanistan, how drone strikes are deployed (except for 1 day of questions due to Rand Paul's filibustering), why the feds have not held a single person on Wall St. Held accountable for playing casino with the economy, why F22 pilots are blacking out – we don't need to look back 10 years to understand what went wrong.
For the same reason a good soldier follows orders, puting his or her life at risk for commander and country – a good journalist serving a major broadcast network or publisher, wishing to avoid career suicide doesn't dare ask the cringe-worthy questions.
Andrew Sullivan is neither a conservative nor a reliable source. He is currently stating Pope Benedict is gay, and engaged in a gay relationship with his male secretary. Both demonstrably false. Yet you yourself have used him as a source in your tweets, and ignored all the usual checks and balances one might have expected from you and your "Reliable Sources."
Howard... When will you report on your own malfeasance regarding your repeated condemnation of Gary Webb in the Contra-Cocaine story?
Thanks alot Howard.
Steve
A Catholic from Ohio