Fox News double dog dares us on the Downing Street memo

Shakespeare's Sister notes this Faux News story on the MSM's failure to pick up on the Downing Street memo:

A British government memo that critics say proves the Bush administration manipulated evidence about weapons of mass destruction in order to carry out a plan to overthrow Saddam Hussein (search) has received little attention in the mainstream media, frustrating opponents of the Iraq war.

The "Downing Street Memo" — first published by The Sunday Times of London on May 1 — summarizes a high-level meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair (search) and his senior national security team on July 23, 2002, months before the March 2003 coalition invasion of Iraq.

The memo suggests that British intelligence analysts were concerned that the Bush administration was marching to war on wobbly evidence that Saddam posed a serious threat to the world.

The memo, which received sporadic reporting in major newspapers in the United States throughout May, has sparked an outcry from more than 88 Democratic members of Congress who have signed two letters to President Bush demanding a response.

Led by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the signatories are mostly representatives who opposed the war in Iraq and make up the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Conyers says the mainstream media have ignored the story and let President Bush off the hook. He noted that liberal blogs and alternative media have been keeping the story alive. "But these voices are too few and too diffuse to overcome the blatant biases of our cable channels and the negligence and neglect of our major newspapers," Conyers said in a recent statement.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said there is "no need" to respond to the memos, the authenticity of which has not been denied.

Dante Zappala does not agree. For Zappala, the Downing Street Memo strikes a critical and personal chord. His brother, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, 30, a soldier in the Pennsylvania National Guard, was killed in Baghdad 13 months ago on what Zappala said was a mission to find weapons there.

"My family knows the consequences of the decision they made to go to war," said Zappala, 29, of Philadelphia. He is a member of Military Families Speak Out, a group that opposes the war and, according to Zappala, now has more than 2,000 members.

"I can't speak for what the TV news decides to focus their attention on," Zappala said. "They seem to have a willful deference to all relevant information. I think they've really just dropped the ball on this."

But not everyone believes the Downing Street Memo represents a "smoking gun" and deserves more attention.

"As a smoking gun it leaves a lot to be desired," said Kevin Aylward, a northern Virginia-based technology consultant who runs the conservative-leaning blog, Wizbangblog.com. "It's interesting, but it's probably fourth- or fifth-hand information."

Aylward added: "I suspect the more interesting story at this point, seeing it three weeks later, is who is behind the letter-writing campaign to push it in the media."

Kevin Aylward obviously fancies himself to be a latter-day G. Gordon Liddy,

In the article, Ellis Henican is quoted as throwing up his hands: "It's a little late," he said of the memo story, adding that people are resigned to the fact that the United States is in Iraq for the long term, regardless of what events led to the war. "We're kind of stuck."

That may be true, but that's the kind of mindset that has allowed this Administration to pile up one heinous act after another, under the (probably correct) assumption that Americans would be paralyzed by exhaustion and horror if they had to face litany of Administration atrocities. This paralysis on the part of the citizenry, combined with its own insularity, arrogance and delusion, is what allows Dick Cheney to get away with stating that the Iraqi insurgency is in its death throes at the same time that the May death toll is the highest of the year so far, and allows Bush to dismiss "absurd" Amnesty International's description of Guantanamo Bay as a gulag. The Administration truly does believe that reality can be created out of whole cloth, and since the journalistic profession has decided to accept this ridiculous notion, it's up to those of us who aren't delusional to keep the pressure on.

Is the Downing Street memo a definitive smoking gun? Hardly. But given that neither British nor American officials have denied its accuracy, it's certainly strong evidence that further investigation is in order -- and that's what we want to see.