This report was no partisan document. Rather, it was, as the N.Y. Times reported, "a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government."
One would think that a news organization would examine the findings of the story and compare it to statements attributed to George Bush and his Congressional rubber-stampers.
By Sunday, Democrats were calling for just such an examination.
The result?
MSNBC headlines the AP story on their website, "Dems use intelligence report to attack GOP." Instead of asking the very legitimate questions posed by the report, MSNBC has the audacity to reduce it to a partisan 'attack' by Democrats.
As for the AP story itself, this is how their story begins:
Democrats on Sunday seized on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence that Americans should choose new leadership in the November elections.
The Democrats hoped the report would undermine the GOP’s image as the party more capable of handing terrorism as the campaign enters its final six-week stretch.
So, following the Mehlman GOP playbook, rather than discuss the findings of the story, diffuse it by turning into an allegedly partisan jab by the Dems.
This is not a report funded by the DNC. Of course, the Democrats are going to draw attention to it. We already know that media outlets like AP will not take it seriously enough to examine the findings on their own.
Meanwhile, by focusing on this alleged 'attack' on the GOP, they do not have to address the real issues posed by the report.
Fox chose to trumpet the story in much the same way, headlining it with, "Democrats Use Report to Blast GOP Over Handling of Iraq War."
The difference is, with Fox, we know this sleight-of-hand is coming. What is MSNBC's excuse, let alone AP?
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