MSM dishonesty everywhere matters to us

Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit has two "now they tell us" links. By "now" he means when the MSM's candidate has got the presidency after an intense campaign that undermined the eight-year long Bush administration at a time when the country was at war.

The first is to an article in the Wall Street Journal about the disgraceful treatment that the elected president of this country received from the left, from big media, from academia and from far too many self-appointed spokespersons and experts. Nasty, vicious and distasteful or, as the Americans put it, classless. You don't have to agree with the man or his politics but the sort of hate campaign we have watched in the last eight years (and, let's face it, with our own media participating in it) is a disgrace to politics. Mind you, the sort of hate campaign that was produced against anyone who challenged The One, President-Elect Obama, was also a disgrace and bodes no good for the next four years.

The second link is to "Just One Minute", which quotes the Iraqi Foreign Minister in Reuters. Apparently, the man is convinced that President Obama will not withdraw troops from Iraq until the country is good and ready. As it happens, I am fairly convinced about that, too. One more thing that will not change. But, it is interesting that the Iraqi Foreign Minister should say that. One of the nastier episodes of the late campaign was the dirt that was poured on Amir Taheri when he dared to write about then Senator Obama having underhand meetings with said Foreign Minister and trying to persuade him to undermine the agreement negotiated with the rightful government of the time.

Here is another link to the coverage at the time and here is the full story in November's issue of Standpoint by Amir Taheri himself.

Why is it important to us apart from the fact that who is elected to the American presidency matters and if this happened after a dubious campaign it is of great importance? Just think of the way our own media reports matters unchallenged and you will see the connection.

Unfortunately they won in America in 2008 not least because the Republican presidential candidate was not exactly top notch. But I predict that this will be their last hurrah. Even people who decided to vote for Obama could see the manoeuvrings and the MSM will pay for their behaviour. Can we say the same in Britain? And if not, why not?