Vex, Lies and Videotape

President Bush and his administration played loose with the truth, according to Scott McClellan, in his new book. This comes as no surprise to most of us, but I know people who still have willingly blinded themselves to the truth.

McClellan goes on to say that he uniknowingly passed on lies about the Valerie Plame scandel. He didn't discover that they were lies until two years later when the press dug up the truth.

On the Today Show this morning, there was a discussion from the three anchors of the three major networks about whether McClellan's assertion that the press failed to ask the tough questions was true. Katie Couric acknowledged that there was a lot of pressure put on the press by McClellan and the administration to report things their way. She said that the Today Show didn't give in, but speculated that the pressure had to have affected coverage.

Brian Williams agreed that coverage could have been better. Charlie Gibson was alone in thinking that the right questions were asked and he wouldn't change anything (which immediately made me check off ABC as an unreliable news source).

Interestingly, I watch NBC and CBS, but never watch ABC. I still respect Dan Rather for trying to stand up to the administration's propaganda machine, albeit with the wrong information. At least he tried, while ABC politely shirked its duty and still fails to acknowledge its failure.

Sadly, none of this will convince those who willingly blind themselves to the truth. I have relatives in Texas who will die supporting Bush, against all the evidence that will continue to come out after he leaves office.

I am happy that McClellan has a conscious and came clean, though. Perhaps the evil empire isn't all evil after all.