So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits--And the President--Failed on Iraq

Greg Mitchell is a talented writer, but even if not he should be listened to closely. He is one of those (like Barack Obama) who has proven to have been right early, and right often, about some of the most serious events of our recent past. But though, as I say, Mr. Mitchell has been proved right, the tone of this book is not one of "I told you so," such as you or I might write. Rather it is one of great sorrow over the human costs of this waste of a war: The thousands of military deaths, not only in combat but those who have killed themselves. Something not enough people are talking about. I'd bet on this being one of the books on Iraq which stands the test of time.

Greg Mitchell's book is an excellent critique of the media and its handling of Iraq war, but it also serves as a reminder of everything that has happened in the last five turbulent years. By looking at the war in its entirety through the lens of media coverage, it not only compiles a history of the events of the war, but also a history of opinion and views about the war, and equally important factor in this controversial engagement. His unbiased and skeptical view of the events are an example of how journalists should have treated it from the beginning, and proof that while many major journalists and publications may have botched the coverage, at least one held true to his journalistic principles and remained outside the tidal wave of populr opinion and spin.

How cool is this? Bruce Springsteen wants you to buy this book. Mitchell, the editor of Editor and Publisher who hobnobbed with rock 'n' roll glitterati during his stint at the legenday magazine Crawdaddy! Springsteen says in a brief (i.e., it's a lot more concise than "Jungleland") preface that Mitchell's book "is to remind us that we all need to be more questioning, skeptical and savvy than ever in assessing information that's presented to us. And we ought to teach our children to do the same." "So Wrong for So Long" is certainly a big start in the right direction. Using a variety of writing techniques and approaches that stretch over five agonizing years of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the collected works touch on the wide scope of journalistic malpractice that stretches to the present, including the early ignoring of Abu Ghraib, civilian casualties, Haditha, and military suicides, among others. One thing stood out as a recurring and awful theme: That it didn't have to be this way, that America's journalists had plenty of information that was readily available in late 2002 and early 2003 to show that the case for the war was partly overhyped but mostly bogus. This story has been told a number of times since 2004, when it became more acceptable, even "cool" for a time, to criticize not only the war but the journalists who covered -- but mostly failed to cover -- the bandwagon rush to launch it. But "So Wrong for So Long" takes a different approach, and it's a more powerful one than most of the other Monday morning quarterbacking that's out there. The book collects some 75 of Mitchell's columns that were written in real time, with some additional commentary to provide the context. Thus, rather than some writer-guy in 2008 pontificating that, sure, it might have been possible to aggressively question that case that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction or meaningful ties to al-Qaeda, we can see Greg Mitchell and a few other brave journalists doing exactly that -- and questioning why others did not do the same. One notable example is a Jan. 23, 2003 (about two months before the war) column entitled "On the War Path." In it, an array of well-known voices, like the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, the Boston Globe's Mark Jurkowitz, Arianna Huffington and Richard Reeves voice a host of misgivings that were getting little play at the time: Why was there such little reporting both of the anti-war protests and the deep but quieter misgivings shared by millions of Americans, of why we were attacking Iraq but not North Korea or whether the president's anger at Saddam was personal? Greg Mitchell and company were asking the right questions before March 2003, and while he's a great journalist, he also holds no magical powers -- just an inquisitive mind and a sense (acquired in part through his excellent reporting in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings) of a world outside of Beltway spin rooms and steakhouses. As good as this collection is, there are times

Bill Moyers, one of the country's great journalists, praised this book for good reason -- it is a heartbreakingly convincing account of how the media failed to perform the role that Jefferson and Madison envisioned--to serve as critical interrogators and skeptics of the government instead of its enablers. Mitchell details how the media aided and abetted George Bush, Hillary Clinton and others in the Congress as they recklessly and unquestioningly blundered into the Iraq war. I hope that every journalist reads and learns from this well informed account and that every American reads it and starts demanding more from the news media created to keep us informed. This is one the most important books of the past few years.

Greg Mitchell has done the public a great service in documenting the historic failure of the Fourth Estate to hold our elected officials accountable for using the media to peddle false information about the so-called threat posed by the Iraqi regime. Even worse, Mitchell's well-researched book shows how the press has continued to print and broadcast facts about Iraq emanating from the White House that has been dismissed as bogus. History teachers should use"So Wrong for So Long" as a classroom textbook so students can learn the truth about how the media was complicit in helping the Bush administration sell the Iraq war to Congress and the public.