A plain reading of the summary clearly showed that Iran was progressing, but the media all reported it as clearing Iran of the charges of pursuing nuclear weapons work. It was amazing to behold.
The whole so-called "torture" issue is another case in point:
Whoever advised people to be skeptical of what they read in the papers must have had in mind this week's coverage of the documents about CIA interrogations. Now that we've had a chance to read the reports, it's clear the real story isn't the few cases of abuse played up by the media. The news is that the program was thoughtfully developed, carefully circumscribed, briefed to Congress, and yielded information crucial to disrupting al Qaeda.
Too late. The media has collectively settled on rash, out of control, hidden from Congress, and did not work. Add in illegal and you have the press collectively on the verge of a wet dream of hauling Dick Cheney into court in irons.
The current administration is well within its rights to alter any program the prior administration instituted in our defense. I don't like that, but they won. If they want to read our enemies their newly created rights, assign them each a Dream Team of attorneys, and release them into downtown Manhattan before their trial, they can. But don't pretend this is all just a matter of following the law. It isn't.
The Left is politicizing policy differences. Which is safer for them, of course, because if a jihadi kills a whole bunch of us when our guard is lowered, they can claim they aren't to blame at all--just following the law that prevented them from protecting us.
And the Left knows that's how the press will collectively report on that event.
