Lazy, or Biased?

Lazy, or Biased? - The Strib ran a story this morning in regard to the Clarke fiasco.

They cite a phone interview with a Tom Maertens of Mankato - a long-timer in the foreign service and National Security office - saying he "broadly agrees with Clarke".

They also tried to set up his bona fides as a impartial observer of the whole situation:

Maertens, who says he has voted for Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, broadly agrees with Clarke. The two worked together but were not close friends. While Clarke prepared to testify Wednesday, Maertens headed to Lanesboro, Minn., for some trout fishing...

Just a good ol' Minnesota boy, off to do some fishin'. Not really a partisan.

But while the Strib managed to relate the details of Mr. Maertens' love of fishing, they didn't bother to tell you that Maertens has a bit of background in banging on the Administration, as we see in this article published on left-wing opinion site CommonDreams.org:

We Were Led to War Under False Pretenses
by Tom Maertens

A year after the invasion of Iraq, it's now clear we were led into war under false pretenses. Contrary to the Bush administration's claims, Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction and Saddam was not involved in 9/11 or tied to al-Qaida.

We have learned instead that the whole thing was a setup: The Bush administration was determined to attack Iraq from the day it took office, according to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

His CommonDreams article ends with this:

the invasion is fraught with ironies: North Korea, Iran and Libya — unlike Iraq — actually were developing nuclear weapons. And the worst proliferator of nuclear technology was not Iraq but the friendly government of Pakistan.

There are many chickens that will come home to roost, most of them long after George W. Bush has vacated the White House. Unfortunately, it is the American people who will be stuck with the droppings.

The article appeared all over the place, naturally.

It can hardly be said that Maertens is the unbiased bucolic that the Strib portrays.

Posted by Mitch at March 27, 2004 10:00 AM