The only thing more elusive than Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction may be a straight answer about who knew what when. Blame has a way of ricocheting around like a little blue racquet ball.
The White House has been hit — accused by some of relying on weak intelligence to support its case for war. The CIA has been thumped, too — charged with just plain getting the intelligence wrong. And the media is taking its knocks.
Critics accuse journalists of going soft when hard questions were in order. They say the public hasn’t been served by an American media too willing to buy the President’s case for war. They say that if intelligence gaps and White House spin were part of the mix, We the People should have known about it BEFORE the fighting began.
Guests:
Michael Massing, freelance journalist and author of “Now They Tell Us” in the New York Review of Books, February 26, 2004
Judith Miller, senior writer, The New York Times
Pamela Hess, Pentagon correspondent, United Press International.