It’s been said that being a TV pundit means never having to say you’re sorry. But you can demand that other people apologize for being right. And being wrong doesn’t seem to affect certain pundits’ ability to gobble up airtime.
This came to mind seeing National Review editor Rich Lowry on Meet the Press on March 23, offering his analysis of Russia:
Angela Merkel said that famous remark that she talked to Putin and he was living in a different world, that’s literally true. We all thought we were living in a post-Cold War world where everyone accepted basic, international norms. He’s living in a world where he can take territory through lies and force of arms.
This wasn’t Lowry’s only appearance; he was on CBS‘s Face the Nation (3/9/14) a few weeks earlier explaining that Obama’s weakness was a a factor in Putin’s Crimea move: “When president of the United States is not respected or feared around the world, it does create a more permissive environment.”
If you’re familiar with Lowry, you might know that he’s not one to shy away from advocating massive military attacks. He shared some of his post-9/11 thoughts with the Washington Post (9/13/01):
America roused to a righteous anger has always been a force for good. States that have been supporting, if not Osama bin Laden, people like him, need to feel pain. If we flatten part of Damascus or Tehran or whatever it takes, that is part of the solution.
So attacks on countries that had nothing to do with the attacks were one way to demonstrate how the United States can be “a force for good.” That gives you a sense of the kind of analysis Lowry brings to the table.
But when you hear someone on TV talking about an invasion launched on “lies and force of arms,” you might naturally wonder what this person thought of the Iraq invasion. And it will come as no surprise that Lowry was a fierce proponent of that war based on “lies and force of arms.”
In fact, Lowry appeared on one Sunday show—Face the Nation (2/23/03)—to promote the false claim that Iraq was in cahoots with Al-Qaeda:
There is a connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. There is no division in the US government about this anymore. Everyone agrees there’s 10 years’ worth of contacts between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.
Host Bob Schieffer actually pushed back on that a bit, but Lowry held firm, saying that government officials had shown “that there have been connections between Iraqi intelligence and Al-Qaeda all through the 1990s.”
Rich Lowry thought pundits should apologize for predicting that Iraq would be a “military disaster.” (cc photo: James Gordon)
Then weeks after the invasion (Townhall, 4/11/03), Lowry penned a column headlined “Naysayers Exposed” that demanded some accountability from those who had predicted the war would be so difficult:
The eternal frustration of political debate is that big, complicated issues take so long to play out that it’s difficult to tell who was right and who was wrong. Not so in the war in Iraq.
Yes, three weeks after the invasion, “we already know whether the invasion was a military disaster, and whether the Iraqis cheered our arrival. On these two counts, the level of sheer, cussed wrongness among journalists and Bush critics is stunning.” Lowry has a list of pundits who got Iraq wrong, and worries that there will be no accountability for their foolish criticism of the Bush administration:
As time erases the memory of their words, the naysayers will simply be willfully pessimistic about the next US intervention.
In reality, of course, these were the people who were right—the invasion ended up costing hundreds of thousands of lives, and left Iraqis concluding that in most ways their country was worse off—and the person who should have been held accountable is Rich Lowry. But he’s still on TV, pontificating about all manner of things. He’s lucky the TV producers who keep putting him on the air don’t seem to care about his record. If there was any accountability in corporate media he’d be nowhere near a TV studio.
Lowry is nothing more than random talking point spewing smarmy frat boy that is giving smarmy frat boys everywhere a bad name. I guess we just chalk his continued employment anywhere to the wing nut welfare system that informs public discourse in the US.
The sad part, there are some who still think the U.S. Corporate Owned Media is actually trying to a job, and produce news account.
Not only Iraq, but he also forgets, quite conveniently, Kosovo. US/NATO took that province from Serbia, no vote, just straight up robbery. At least they voted in Crimea to break from Ukraine.
This war monger most likely never wore a military uniform and I doubt he has ever been in combat. War is THE most pornographic thing we humans have ever invented. Vietnam 5th Marine Regiment 1970-71.
Does anyone really watch”Meet the Press?” Isn’t this the kind of show networks create so they can say that they show all sides….although all sides of what is the question.
What a peculiar thing to say —-that when America’s president is not feared or respected around the world that this creates a more permissive environment.That’s certainly tyrant talk or at least the similar mindset of Red Queen from ,Thorugh the Looking Glass.
Wow, feared and respected at the same time? How could that be? Oh well, perhaps Mr Lowry had a very sad family life growing up?
I think that the last time that America was a “force for good,” was after WW II, when it seemed that the people of war torn nations were helped and that people mattered more than their natural resources.
I’m sorry he thinks that it’s fine for Damascus and Teheran to be leveled….I guess he forgets that nations are made up of civilians who become Stastics. I suppose too that he might think that Dresden and Mai Lai and 2 heded babies in Iraq is fine too?
Maybe that news show should be renamed” Meet the Mess,” because that seems to cover what has been happening on planet Earth in the 21st century.
We are so alarmed at Russia referendum where it got 95% of votes for annexation. Canadian major network compared Putin Hitler. Canadian responsible PM and Minster is calling it Putin hungry eyes on Europe.
The same critics never uttered a word when USA invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and is still occupying after 12 years those cursed lands.
This is a selective condemnation; not a genuine one from politicians and Media.
“…nowhere near a TV studio…”
Using that as a guidpost, why aren’t you demanding that Paul Krugman be kept off the air?
Why do we even care what these liars say on MSM news outlets like NBC and CBS, when those networks are for-profit corporations who only stand to lose if they were to give air time to anyone telling the truth?
I appreciate what FAIR is doing, the watchdog thing. We need that. But wouldn’t it be good for FAIR to report what alternate outlets are saying? The Real News is just one, but actually, I’d like to see a comparison with what outlets like RT and PressTV are reporting. I watch RT a lot and I notice their reporting is cloyingly pro-Russia (although I admit I agree with a lot of it).
FAIR is missing out on a lot of good coverage if they don’t start to spread out beyond the usual outlets (NYT, WaPo, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc) which we already know have very stilted and distorted views of events.
I’d like to see some critique of the alternative press as well. (Hopefully such critique will be substantive in nature, and avoid superficialities like production quality and such, which many of them cannot do anything about.)