ABC News ignores the facts in order to prop up the Pelosi story
May 15, 2009 12:50 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
This, as Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler has explained over the years, is what happens when the Beltway press weds itself to a storyline. Once that narrative is agreed upon, there's no adjusting it. It is what it is, and everyone marches ahead in unison using the same 'facts.'
And recently, the agreed upon storyline is that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has become deeply entangled in a controversy about what she did and didn't know about torture techniques.
Here's how ABC reported it today:
Pelosi yesterday accused the CIA of giving her “inaccurate and incomplete information” on the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics by the Bush administration, saying that CIA officials are guilty of “misleading the Congress of the United States.” Her recollection is contradicted by an intelligence report sent to Congress last week, which said Pelosi was briefed on enhanced interrogation techniques “that had been employed” in September 2002.
Yikes, Pelosi was caught red-handed telling a fib; unmasked by a CIA intelligence report which totally undercut her claim that she was never told about torture techniques. Busted!
But what did ABC dutifully leave out of its explanation about how Pelosi's recollection was "contradicted" by a CIA intel report? Just the fact that the head of the CIA warned Congress that that intel report may not be accurate or reliable.
Today's process gotcha thriller pits Pelosi vs. the CIA report. But in the press' preferred telling, news consumers don't need to know that the CIA report might not be accurate.
UPDATE: Like we said, the press moves in a pack. And this pack has no interest--none--in detailing doubts about the CIA report.


















And being loyal requires privacy???? Please. Is that not why we are (sadly) having a debate about torture? Is it not because Republicans and Democrats alike took the cowardly route and offered privacy to those instituting the torture program?
Come on, at some point you have to stop being sheep and stand up for what is morally right. Or perhaps I am speaking to one who believes we should be torturing. In that case, your statement above makes perfect sense.
"I want her screwed, I want her head. Ha-ha <Mickey Mouse laugh>"
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/may/12/nancy-pelosi/cia-documents-claim-speaker-pelosi-was-told-about-/
But what did ABC dutifully leave out of its explanation about how Pelosi's recollection was "contradicted" by a CIA intel report? Just the fact that the head of the CIA warned Congress that that intel report may not be accurate or reliable.
However, CIA Director Peneta made it clear in his notes that this is not "fact" and is "best recollection" that needs to be verified.
The politicization is from TNR who put pressure on Politifact to print his and to remove their cap & trade tax estimate story that dinged the right wingers and upset TNR.
You should do further research and do not just think you've stumbled across something clearly factual.
This one clearly is not.
Pelosi is toast, it's only a matter of time. ..http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/15/harman-letter-cia-lodged-policy-legal-question-interrogation-methods/
Somebody somewhere is having oral sex, shouldn't you be hunting them down?