As the U.S. begins Year 4 of its occupation of Iraq, the media cannot look at its behavior over the past three years and declare victory. In fact, when it comes to telling the truth, many journalists and commentators have surrendered without putting up a fight.

A compilation of the media’s greatest hits – or, biggest flops – has been assembled by the watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting and can be found online at www.fair.org. From the outset of the war, the public’s watchdogs have been serving as the Bush administration’s lapdogs.

Fox News Channel Brit Hume is one of Bush’s leading cheerleaders

“The majority of the American media who were in a position to comment upon the progress of the war in the early going, and even after that, we got it wrong,” Humes said in a speech in Richmond, Va. “They didn’t get it just a little wrong. They got it completely wrong.” [Richmond Times Dispatch 4/25/04]

Fellow conservative Charles Krauthammer, a columnist for the Washington Post, sounds a similar alarm.

“The only people who think this wasn’t a victory are Upper Westside liberals, and a few people here in Washington.” [Inside Washington 4/19/03]

One of the newspapers read by Upper Westside liberals in New York was not to be outdone by its Washington competitor. Times reporter David Carr said: “Liberal writers for ideologically driven magazines like The Nation and less overtly political ones like The New Yorker did not predict a defeat, but the terrible consequences many warned of have not happened. Now liberal commentators must address the victory at hand and confront an ascendant conservative juggernaut that asserts United States might can set the world right.” [4/16/03]

Fox’s News Bill O’Reilly boasted, “It won’t take weeks. You know that, professor. Our military machine will crush Iraq in a matter of days and there’s no question that it will.” [2/10/03]

Another Fox commentator, Morton Kondracke, did not attempt to restrain his glee.

“Well, the hot story of the week is victory,” he said. “…The Tommy Franks-Don Rumsfeld battle plan, war plan, worked brilliantly, a three-week war with mercifully few American deaths or Iraqi civilian deaths…There is a lot of work yet to do, but all the naysayers have been humiliated so far…The final word on this is hooray.” [4/12/03]

A Los Angeles Times headline that proclaimed, “Iraq is All but Won; Now What?” [4/10/03]

CBS News reporter Joie Chen declared, “Now that the combat phase of the war in Iraq is officially over, what begins is a debate throughout the entire U.S. government over America’s unrivaled power and how best to use it.” [5/4/03]

Along with cheering U.S. troops entering Iraq – maybe Rumsfeld confused U.S. journalists/commentators with Iraqi citizens he had predicted would waving U.S. flags as they were being “liberated” – they sounded like Bush minions on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.

“Over the next couple of weeks when we find chemical weapons this guy was amassing, the fact that this war was attacked by the left and so the right was so vindicated, I think,
really means that the left is going to have to hang its head for three or four more years,” said Dick Morris on Fox News. [4/9/03)

“Saddam could decide to take Baghdad with him,” Newsweek said. “One Arab intelligence officer interviewed by Newsweek spoke of ‘the green mushroom’ over Baghdad…” [3/17/03]

MSNBC Reporter Bob Arnot: “…More than anything else, real vindication for the administration. One, credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Two, you know what? There were a lot of terrorists here, really bad guys. I saw them.” [4/9/03]

Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas set himself up for a future ridicule.

“Speaking to the U.N. Security Council last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell made so strong a case that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is in material breach of U.N. resolutions that only the duped, the dumb and the desperate could ignore it.” [2/12/03]

Okay, Cal, which one are you?

Bob Edwards, on National Public Radio (NPR) at the time, announced: “Congress returns to Washington this week to a world very different from the one members left two weeks ago. The war in Iraq is essentially over and domestic issues are regaining attention.” [4/28/03]

In another column Thomas said: “All of the printed and voiced prophecies should be saved in an archive. When these false prophets again appear, they can be reminded of the error of their previous ways and at least be offered an opportunity to recant and repent. Otherwise, they will return to us in another situation where their expertise will be acknowledged, or taken for granted, but their credibility will be lacking.”

As an unrepentant false prophet, Thomas should know.