I have to comment on the latest Fleischer/Matthews interview

Chris Matthews yesterday, interviewed former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and drudged up a lot old stuff about the Bush administration. Back when Bush was in office, democratic strategists, politicians and pundits, made many false accusations against him and his administration. I really believed that once he was no longer in office, they would have the decency to at least stop flat out lying about what they had done and said. I had always believed that although despicable, it was done in the name of politics... You know, so republicans would be voted out of office, and democrats would be voted in.

After watching the following interview, I now know my belief was wrong, and I just have to comment on it:



Everything up to about the 3:50 mark was fine. Matthews was citing facts about the former administration to criticize them, and Ari was citing facts about the former administration to praise them. Then Matthews began asking questions and taking shots at Bush, and started a pattern of not letting Ari answer, or interrupting him when he didn't like the answer he was getting.

Admittedly, Ari was pushing the "Bush kept us safe" line instead of directly answering questions posed to him on the economy, but then Matthews said something that pissed Ari off. He said that 9/11 was Bush's fault and made a "9/11 happened on Bush's watch" type statement. Fleischer responded with "Chris, how dare you", and so began Matthews resurrection of all liberal lies and bullshit we all heard for nearly 8 years.

At about the 5:45 mark, Fleischer makes a statement about the obvious liberal bias Matthews has, that stops Chris in his tracks. (watch video)

At the 7:25 mark, the lies and distortions begin:

1. Matthews implies that 9/11 could have been prevented if Bush hadn't ignored a Presidential Daily Brief, which stated that al qaida was determined to attack America.

Fleischer then points out the actual content of that PDB (which has been available online for many years), which reveals it contained no actionable intelligence in it. All it said was al qaida wanted to attack America, but it didn't know when, where, or how this was going to be done. (Incidentally, Clinton received virtually the same PDB when he was in office)

2. Matthews states at the 10:20 mark, that when Fleischer was press secretary, he said the administration had made "a dishonest argument that we faced a nuclear threat".

Ari responds by saying "I said we were wrong... I didn't say we were dishonest. Dishonest is your word Chris Matthews... We were wrong". Being "wrong" means you made an honest mistake. Being "dishonest" means you lied.

3. In the same conversation, Matthews again implies the administration lied by saying "how did it happen, if it wasn't done on purpose?"

We've all known for nearly 5 years how it happened, including Chris Matthews. The administration based what they said on intelligence reports, which were later found to be incorrect. Half a dozen investigations determined the this. Ari points that out saying "It was an intelligence mistake". He then goes on to point out that not only was Bush wrong, but so was the UN, Egypt, Israel, and even Bill Clinton.

4. Matthews then discusses the honesty of the claims made about Iraq by Bush, and when Fleischer states that Clinton and Bush said Iraq had biological and chemical weapons, Matthews then says "Nuclear...Nuclear weapons... You guys claimed nuclear"

Ari responded "No we didn't Chris. Dick Cheney made a mistake on one Sunday show and said "nuclear", but he took it back. That's the only time anybody ever said it." Fleischer is absolutely correct.

5. Matthews stated "Over and over again, if we didn't go to war with Iraq... If we waited to hear evidence further... We would suffer a mushroom cloud. Condi Rice"

What she actually said was, ""The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Matthews, along with most liberals have falsely twisted that statement for years now. She never said America would suffer a nuclear attack if we didn't remove Saddam. She said (based on the intelligence at the time) that Iraq was developing nuclear capabilities, and if we don't put a stop to it now, one day he would have the ability to launch a nuclear attack, or nuclear weapons to someone else to use. She never said or even implied that such an attack would be against the United States. She was simply saying, it's better to stop him now, than wait until he has nukes and attacks someone with them.

6. Matthews then falsely states that Cheney went on TV "Again, again and again" warning that if we didn't attack Iraq, we would suffer a nuclear attack from them, even after Fleischer had already informed him that Cheney made a mistake about Iraq having nuclear weapons in one interview on Meet The Press, and had immediately corrected it.

Problem is, Cheney never said any such thing. All Cheney, along with others in the administration ever said, (based on intelligence reports) was that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program. I can understand people in America thinking that Iraq might use a nuclear weapon if they developed the ability to create one, even possibly use it on us. It's a very logical thing to ponder. But the administration never told the American people that if we didn't go to war with Iraq, they would attack us with nuclear weapons.

7. After Fleischer sets the record straight about faulty intelligence being to blame, and not the administration, Matthews then says in essence, that Iran has become the biggest military threat to the world, and it's Bush's fault because we invaded Iraq.

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I understand and respect that some people didn't like George Bush. I have no problem at all with politicians or media personalities like Chris Matthews going on TV today, and continuing to criticize Bush even though he's not in office anymore. The freedom for someone to publicly express their political views, likes and dislikes, is what America is all about...

What I don't understand, is how people like Chris Matthews can get in front of the cameras and knowingly use lies and blatant distortions, to slander the former leader of this country. Does he have no conscience?

Could someone please tell me when it became a morally acceptable practice, for liberals to ignore the facts and put forth lies to the American public, to attack the people they disagree with?

Why do media outlets continue to allow lies and disinformation to be presented to the American public? Shouldn't they be held to at least some standard of truth?

What I would like to know, is this behavior acceptable to you all? What do you think about the use of lies to publicly attack someone? Forget about how you feel toward George Bush, this has nothing to do with him. This is about dishonesty and the media's role in presenting that dishonesty to the public.