Name: WaPo Curates the Memory of George Shultz - FAIR
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WaPo Curates the Memory of George Shultz - FAIR

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&nbsp;Condoleezza Rice (Washington Post, ) on George Shultz: “His integrity was unquestioned by friend and foe alike.”George Shultz, a prominent cabinet member of both the Nixon and Reagan administrations, holding posts at State, Treasury, Labor and the Office of Management and Budget, died over the weekend at age 100. His death prompted no fewer than three fawning tributes in the Washington Post, in addition to the paper’s official obituary.Former George W. Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who considered Shultz both a mentor and friend, was given column space at the Post () to wax poetic about how Shultz “never lost sight of the centrality of freedom to the human experience and to human dignity,” and concluded that “we are all so much better for having been a part of the consequential life that he lived.”Minutes later, the Post published a tribute from the paper’s former reporter Lou Cannon (), who lauded a man who “spoke truth to power” and “lived his life in service to his nation and humanity.”The next day, Post columnist David Ignatius () offered yet a third hagiography. Ignatius gushed:Watching him over so many years was an education in the fact that the good guys—the smart, decent people who take on the hard job of making the country work—do sometimes win in the end.Ignatius noted that Shultz “was Post publisher Katharine Graham’s favorite tennis partner,” and the warm, fuzzy feelings clearly persist at the paper long after Graham’s departure.But assessments that judge Shultz to be one of “the good guys,” with a commitment to things like freedom, human dignity and humanity, necessarily gloss over his role in both the Iraq War and the Iran/Contra scandal.Lou Cannon (Washington Post, ) on Shultz: “He spoke truth to power—particularly in the face of presidents who tried to push him around or to act unethically.”It was Shultz’s influential assertion in the mid-’80s of a right to pre-emptively strike against “future attacks”—what was dubbed the ““—that helped pave the way for the endless War on Terror, and led the Wall Street Journal () to call Shultz “the father of the Bush Doctrine” of unprovoked attacks on nations deemed threats. Shultz was a mentor to both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as well as Rice, and after 9/11 Shultz chaired the pro-invasion “Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.” As FAIR () argued more than 10 years ago, when PBS aired a glowing documentary about Shultz that omitted his role in the Iraq War:His advocacy for a new norm of international law that legitimizes “active prevention, pre-emption and retaliation” against terrorism is one of the most abiding, and controversial, legacies of Shultz’s tenure at the State Department, providing the justification for two ongoing wars.None of the three Post contributors mentioned Bush, Iraq or the War on Terror. Perhaps even more disturbingly, neither did the paper’s nearly 3,000-word obituary for Shultz ().The Post also attempted to avoid or rewrite another key piece of Shultz’s history—his role in the Iran/Contra scandal, in which the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran in order to fund, against congressional prohibitions, the right-wing Contra terror squads working to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. As Iran/Contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh concluded in his final report (Extra! Update, ):The evidence establishes that the central National Security Council operatives kept their superiors—including Reagan, [Vice President George] Bush, Shultz, [Defense Secretary Caspar] Weinberger and other high officials—informed of their efforts generally, if not in detail, and their superiors either condoned or turned a blind eye to them.“Mr. Shultz had a reputation for integrity and honesty,” his Washington Post obituary () reported—before relating how as a board member of the Theranos biotech firm, he stuck by the company “in the face of mounting evidence of fraud and tried to pressure his grandson into silence” when the younger Shultz came forward as a whistleblower.The Post obituary, written by tried to spin this, relying on the account of the Reagan administration’s hand-picked investigative board:By Mr. Shultz’s account, he argued vigorously in private against the arms sales to Tehran, which were designed to gain Iran’s help in freeing US hostages in Lebanon. But he was criticized afterward for not taking on the matter more directly.“Secretary Shultz and Secretary Weinberger in particular distanced themselves from the march of events,” concluded the board chaired by former Sen. John Tower (R.-Texas) that reviewed the Reagan administration’s handling of the matter. “Secretary Shultz specifically requested to be informed only as necessary to perform his job.”As if worried that even this apologetic assessment might still put the deceased in an unfavorable light, the paper quickly softened the blow:Once the matter became public, however, Mr. Shultz, reflecting the lessons of what he had seen during Watergate, urged others in the administration to come clean. Historian Malcolm Byrne, in his book Iran/Contra, wrote that “Shultz alone proposed to engage the US public rather than keep a tight hold on information.”And the Post didn’t even mention Shultz’s position on the Contra half of the scandal—perhaps because he in discussions regarding how to get around the congressional prohibitions, and almost made a solicitation himself to the Sultan of Brunei (FAIR.org, ).In Ignatius’s telling, Iran/Contra was an illustration of Shultz’s “good judgment”:He could detect bad ideas taking shape in the bureaucracy almost as if by smell. And he tried to stop them, even when that meant challenging Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, whose policy ideas he mistrusted, or President Ronald Reagan, whose National Security Council staff concocted a bizarre plot—to fund the contras in Nicaragua by selling arms to Iran—that Shultz abhorred.Rice and Cannon simply omitted Iran/Contra in their columns. Either way, by exclusion or distortion, establishment obituaries rewrite history to make the official heroes fit for adoration (FAIR.org, , , , ).ACTION ALERT: Messages can be sent to the Washington Post at , or via Twitter . Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.FAIR’s work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. today to be a part of this important mission.You can also support FAIR on Patreon! Click the button below!Scribing for the sinnersJust another example of how WaPo and NYT are not-so-cleverly-disguised narrative organs for the U.S. empire and those who benefit from the managed perception that it’s different than any past “evil” empire.Look at how quickly the media fell in line with the Iraq lies after 9/11, then later pretended to criticize and/or ostracize the architects and mouthpieces of that illegal invasion, and yet later still, laundered them and their neocon warmongering simply because they were anti-Trump.It’s just amazing to me how so many people are still fooled by the corporate media, but it doesn’t help that so many believe it to be “liberal” or “progressive” rather than simply a corporate/MIC propaganda bullhorn that is nearly 100% uniform in its messaging from Fox to NBC to CBS to WaPo, the NYT and everyone else.Every Post and WSJ article is in the Opinion section of both newspapers. Who cares? It’s not news. It’s not history. It’s just someones opinion. Opining on the Opinion section and pretending its news is lazy.SoS’s are not perfect. There’s not a single one who has made bad policy decisions. I credit George Shultz for helping end the Cold War. He played a key role in negotiating the INF Treaty.Communism was a very evil entity. Go and read what Alexander Solzhenitsyn revealed about it. If Progressives care about fighting for human rights, then ending communism should be at the top of your list. Shultz deserves credit for all of this.FAIR needs to stop painting things in black and white just so it reflects your political point of view. International affairs is more complex than you make it out to be.In a just world, this guy would have been tried for war crimes, Mike ListonTake ActionFAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. We expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, we believe that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.Fairness &amp; Accuracy In Reporting124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201New York, NY 10001Tel: 212-633-6700We rely on your support to keep running. Please consider donating.This work is licensed under a License.

&nbsp;Condoleezza Rice (Washington Post, ) on George Shultz: “His integrity was unquestioned by friend and foe alike.”George Shultz, a prominent cabinet member of both the Nixon and Reagan administrations, holding posts at State, Treasury, Labor and the Office of Management and Budget, died over the weekend at age 100. His death prompted no fewer than three fawning tributes in the Washington Post, in addition to the paper’s official obituary.Former George W. Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who considered Shultz both a mentor and friend, was given column space at the Post () to wax...

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Julie Hollar

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, holding corporate media accountable for distortions & omissions since 1986. http://mastodon.world/@FAIR

WaPo Curates the Memory of George Shultz - FAIR

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