Blackbear

Leading US daily admits underplaying stories critical of White House push for Iraq war

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Washington Post became the latest prestigious US newspaper to question its own coverage of Iraq leading up to the US-led war, saying it underplayed stories questioning White House claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
"Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday," said Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks.


"There was an attitude among editors: Look, we're going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?" he added.

In retrospect, said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., "we were so focused on trying to figure out what the administration was doing that we were not giving the same play to people who said it wouldn't be a good idea to go to war and were questioning the administration's rationale.


"Not enough of those stories were put on the front page. That was a mistake on my part."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../us_iraq_media

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