I would guess that there are dozens of new studies released every week. Some few of them find their way into the media spotlight.

The optimist in me says, at least we’re learning to find out who is behind them now. Never has the need for that been more clear than in this example:

Study: False Statements Preceded War

A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”

What every media story has left out of their “reporting” is that the two nonprofit journalism organizations are nearly one in the same, or as Fausta discovered,

The Fund for Independence in Journalism mission, in their own words:

The Fund’s primary purpose is providing legal defense and endowment support for the largest nonprofit, investigative reporting institution in the world, the Center for Public Integrity

According to AP, that makes them two nonprofit journalism organizations, when in fact it’s one organization with a legal branch to shield it from lawsuits.

Another conveniently omitted fact? A primary source of funding for these independent sources is none other than George Bush’s biggest fan, George Soros. I can’t imagine why the rightosphere concludes there is any bias here.

Dafydd sums the entire situation in this way:

But realizing that the elite media has only our best interests at heart, my only possible conclusion is that, despite the multiple layers of editorial input that must occur at these venues, several important facts just slipped through the cracks:

• The fact that the Center for Public Integrity is a Left-funded, leftist, activist organization with a serious hatchet to grind with the Bush administration;
• The fact that the Fund for Independence in Journalism is neither independent, nor is it engaged in journalism (it’s a front group of mostly the same people whose purpose is to shield the Center from lawsuits);
• And the fact that the vast majority of the supposed “false statements” are in fact simply positions with which liberals disagree, or else statements widely accepted at the time that later investigation (after deposing Saddam Hussein) showed to be inaccurate.

I will not be holding my breath waiting for the media to correct the oversights.