{"id":522,"date":"2004-02-10T11:14:53","date_gmt":"2004-02-10T19:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/02\/from_robust_to_bust\/"},"modified":"2004-02-10T11:14:53","modified_gmt":"2004-02-10T19:14:53","slug":"from_robust_to_bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/02\/from_robust_to_bust.html","title":{"rendered":"FROM ROBUST TO BUST"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news media’s pretense<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> that the Maximum Leader
\nactually said something of value Sunday in his interview on “Meet the Press” was one more
\nconfirmation that the United States is being turned into a Banana Republic. <\/P>
\n

So said I as straight-faced news stories began pouring in with headlines like this from UPI:
\n“Bush defends actions against Saddam”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> (instead of,
\nsay, “fumbles defense”) and leads like this from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “President
\nGeorge W. Bush delivered on Sunday a robust defense of his presidency<\/B><\/A>, from his policy toward Iraq to his handling of
\nthe economy to his blunt style …”

But now that the media has had a chance to digest
\nits so-called news, things are looking somewhat better. In two beautiful editorials, yesterday’s “Mr. Bush’s
\nVersion”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> and today’s “Mr. Bush’s Revisionism,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> The New York Times has
\nspoken out with ringing clarity against the pin-headed deceptions and pathetic lies that passed in
\ncertain quarters for “a robust defense.” <\/P>
\n

Many others, too, are weighing in. For example, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary A.
\nMitchell says this morning she feels betrayed: “Trust fades as war cry rings too hollow.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> Fred
\nKaplan wonders in Slate, in “Bush at Sea”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>: “Does this war president have any
\nidea what he’s talking about?”<\/P>
\n

That is not a rhetorical question.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news media’s pretense that the Maximum Leader actually said something of value Sunday in his interview on “Meet the Press” was one more confirmation that the United States is being turned into a Banana Republic. So said I as straight-faced news stories began pouring in with headlines like this from UPI: “Bush defends actions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-8q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}