Patterico does an excellent job of deconstructing a front-page Los Angeles Times hit piece on John McCain. The Times article includes this howler:

But McCain openly disputed Bush administration claims that Hussein appeared linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “I doubt seriously if there’s this close relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein,” he told CBS News in September 2002.

We know that op-ed columns sometimes appear in print without ever being read by an editor, but I assume that front-page news stories are reviewed by at least one person other than the reporter who writes them. It is hard to believe that there are both a reporter and an editor at the L.A. Times who don't know that this statement about "Bush administration claims" is false.

Over the last five years, we have witnessed something remarkable: our principal news media outlets have fabricated an alternative reality around the Iraq war by simply misreporting the facts. They have done this in order to advance their own political agenda. It is really quite extraordinary; someone should write a book about it.

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Posted by John at 7:46 PM  |    |