Iraq war: ‘The media ended up being lapdogs, not watchdogs’ | Media

From: UpFront

Twenty years on from the start of the Iraq war, we look at how the US and UK media helped sell the war to the public.

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq 20 years ago, United States President George W Bush’s administration and its surrogates went into overdrive, pushing the narrative that Iraq, and its leader Saddam Hussein, posed an immediate and significant threat to the US, and the world.

Most of the media in the US and the UK uncritically repeated dubious claims about weapons of mass destruction and possible links to al-Qaeda, claims that were thoroughly debunked in the months and years that followed.

So how complicit was the media in selling the Iraq war to the public in the US and the UK? And has the press learned any lessons from past failures?

In an UpFront Special, Marc Lamont Hill is joined by publisher and editorial director of The Nation magazine, Katrina Vanden Heuvel; founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Norman Solomon; and former chief political commentator for the Daily Telegraph, Peter Oborne.