Assessing the media coverage of the war in Iraq

Guests:  JONATHAN LANDAY, MARK THOMPSON

In 2004, the New York Times ran an unprecedented apology for its reporting in the lead-up to the U.S. war in Iraq admitting that their work “was not as rigorous as it should have been.”   It is widely acknowledged now that like the Times, many prominent news organizations failed in their role as public watchdogs and accepted the Bush administration’s case for war without rigorous investigation.  In this hour of Radio Times, on the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we’ll look back at the media coverage of the war and explore the reasons why some reporters get the story so wrong while others got it right. Then, are there lessons to be learned from the mistakes?   Marty talks to JONATHAN LANDAY, senior national security and intelligence correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers and MARK THOMPSON, Deputy bureau chief for TIME’s Washington bureau and moderator of its  Battleland blog. We’ll also check in with SAFA ISMAEL, a former Iraqi translator who worked with the U.S. military in Mosul.  He was given a special VISA to come to the U.S. after narrowly escaping a car bomb. We’ll hear about his new life, this family still in Iraq and his reflections on the war.

AP Photo/FILE/Marcio Jose Sanchez