Just blocks from the White House and other halls of power, it may seem as if the Washington Post has the home field advantage. But when it comes to the Bush administration during wartime, even a home game can be tough. Officials in this war were notoriously tightfisted with information, except when it suited their purposes to get a story out.
In some cases the Post managed to squeeze out “exclusive” stories with “unnamed sources,” among them, an exaggerated account of Jessica Lynch’s fight with Iraqi forces before her capture. On other occasions the Post proved its independence: when for example, one of its reporters insisted that more civilians were killed in a shooting incident than the Pentagon had reported. The fight for the straight story in wartime.
Guests:
Steven Coll, Managing Editor of the Washington Post
Eric Umansky writes the ‘Today’s Papers’ column for
Slate.com.