Media’s Rorschach

Watching the liberal pundits interpret the latest 600 page intelligence report reminds me of an obsessive patient taking a Rorschach test:

Doc: OK Try this one.

MSM: That one looks like umm… a…..a monkey….Bush the monkey.

Doc: Good, and this one.

MSM: that one’s sort of hazy…..but I’d say…….Bush ignoring the UN.

Doc: And this.

MSM: That’s Bush ignoring the UN again…..except from a different angle.

Doc: Yes very good, and this.

MSM: I see two figures there………one’s Bush …..and the other…..let’s see…..a CIA agent…..that’s it, Bush telling a CIA agent the answers he wants to hear on the WMD issue.

As I’ve posted below, here’s the principal conclusion of the intelligence report:

“We conclude that it was the paucity of intelligence and poor analytical tradecraft, rather than political pressure, that produced the inaccurate pre-war intelligence assessments.”

In short, it wasn’t Bush’s fault. But how does David Ignatius interpret the report, in an article entitled (this is too good) “Fooling Ourselves”? While the failure to expressly blame the Bush administration was “unfortunate”, he goes on to explain what the report really “hints at”, prefacing his conclusions with the following:

The Bush administration must examine its role in the process of self-deception over Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, above all to guard against future mistakes. (emphasis added)

You see, it really was Bush’s fault after all. OK David, you can get off the couch now, the nurse has a nice lollypop waiting for you in the next room.

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