In the years that follow the Bush Administration, you’ll be seeing a lot of people pointing the finger at Bush and his cronies for all the lies that got us into, and have kept us in Iraq.  And a lot of that finger pointing will be done, never doubt it, by the people most responsible…

FAIR studied all on-camera sources on the nightly ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS newscasts: Less than 1 percent – 3 out of 393 sources – were antiwar. Only 6 percent were skeptical sources.

This at a time when 60 percent of Americans in polls wanted more time for diplomacy and inspections.

I worked 10-hour days inside MSNBC’s newsroom during this period as senior producer of Phil Donahue’s primetime show (cancelled three weeks before the war while the network’s most-watched program).

Trust me: too much skepticism over war claims was a punishable offense. I and all other Donahue producers were repeatedly ordered by top management to book panels that favored the pro-invasion side.

I watched a fellow producer get chewed out for booking a 50-50 show.

At MSNBC, I heard Scott Ritter smeared – on-air and off – as a paid mouthpiece of Saddam Hussein. After we had war skeptic and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark on the show, we learned he was on some sort of network blacklist.  

When MSNBC terminated Donahue, it was expected that we’d be replaced by a nightly show hosted by Jesse Ventura. But that show never really launched.

Ventura says it was because he, like Donahue, opposed the Iraq invasion; he was paid millions for not appearing.

Another MSNBC star, Ashleigh Banfield, was demoted and then lost her job after criticizing the first weeks of “very sanitized” war coverage. With every muzzling, self-censorship tended to proliferate. 

I’m no defender of Scott McClellan.  Some may say he has blood on his hands – and that he hasn’t earned any kind of redemption.

But as someone who still burns with anger over what I witnessed inside TV news during that crucial historical moment, I’m trying my best to enjoy this falling out among thieves and liars.

Thieves and liars.  Yes.  That about sums up the miserable lot of them.  I was walking through the concourse of Washington National Airport the other day and noticed a CNBC News Store in passing.  A Store, mind you…like a Disney store or a Nicktoons store, or one of those As Seen On TV stores.  You could buy a CNBC coffee mug, or a T-shirt, and books by various CNBC personalities.  I am living in a day and age when network news organizations have their own shopping boutiques.  You could get everything but the latest news there.