Continuing to push Bushco spin, context-free journalism hits a new low

condi meets with syria, shuns iran, the u.s. anti-iran propaganda machine grinds on, and neither the washington post nor the associated press bother to reference relevant events that only happened a month ago...

wapo headline...

Projectile Bomb Attacks Hit Record High in Iraq
U.S. Says Weapons Are Made in Iran

a.p...

The United States accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons as well as funneling money and weapons [to] the Shiite militias responsible for much of Iraq's violence.

but since both condi and manouchehr just so happened to be in sharm el-sheikh at the same time, do you think they could have seized the opportunity...? oh, no-o-o-o-oooo...

a.p...

"There was no direct meeting [between Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] but they were in the same room and they were discussing the issues," said Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

wapo...

Senior Bush administration officials said that she would not hold a widely anticipated meeting with Iran's foreign minister, but that the United States plans to hold direct talks with Tehran in the near future.

however, after the white house and congressional republicans united in a talking point assault on nancy pelosi's trip to syria a few weeks ago, we now have this...

wapo...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met here Thursday with her Syrian counterpart in the first high-level talks between the two governments in more than two years.

[...]

Officials said the decision to end the U.S. isolation of Syria and Iran -- which the administration accuses of facilitating insurgent and militia violence in Iraq -- was made in Washington in the days leading up to the conference.

[...]

Acknowledging a change in policy, officials characterized it as a response to direct appeals from the Iraqi government and emphasized that it should be seen in the context of the conference.

and what's missing from both the a.p. and the wapo stories...? not only no mention of nancy pelosi, but, as i posted the other day in reference to a wapo op-ed, ALSO no mention of...

either the republican house member, david hobson, who traveled with pelosi or the republican house delegation, robert anderholt and frank wolf, who preceded her or the republican congressman, darrell issa, who followed her...

then, after ignoring the recent congressional efforts to reach out to syria, the wapo grabs one more opportunity to quote bush administration spin by including this pathetic state department attempt to add its OWN version of context by reaching all the fracking way back to the carter administration...

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington on Thursday that the last U.S.-Iran "direct high-level meeting . . . that was substantive" was when President Jimmy Carter visited Iran in December 1977, before the revolution.

and, to add insult to injury, after grabbing the state department's reference to carter, the wapo neglects to mention that none other than jimmy carter HIMSELF voiced support for pelosi's trip...

Former President Jimmy Carter expressed his support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, rejecting White House criticism of the visit.

"I was glad that she went," Carter said Wednesday. "When there is a crisis, the best way to help resolve the crisis is to deal with the people who are instrumental in the problem."

ok, look... i'm just an old fart, sitting around, blogging away, and it took me all of 30 minutes to put this post together, a post which, imho, contains more context than the combined resources of the washington post and the associated press could muster... is it because i'm smarter...? is it because i did more research or have access to more information...? we all know the answers to those questions - HELL, NO...! so why is the context missing...? there can only be one reason... THEY DIDN'T WANT TO PUT IT IN... and why not...? now, THERE'S the big question... we could sit around and speculate all day on why, but the fact remains, it's not there, and anyone reading these stories is missing a huge amount of relevant information - and that is a complete disgrace...

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