Why is the establishment media so out of touch on 9/11?

May 22, 2007 -- Last Sunday, C-Span 2 aired a session from the 2007 LA Times Festival of Books, called the “Age of Spin Panel,” whose purpose was to explore media deception during the Bush years – a big topic. The panel consisted of Newsweek journalist Michael Isikoff, political consultant Frank Luntz, Salon.com columnist Joe Conason, and Mother Jones magazine reporter David Goodman, all of whom, with the possible exception of Goodman, are well-known figures within the Washington media establishment. A number of topics were discussed – the Iraq war, the outing of Valerie Plame – but I found the panel chiefly interesting for what was said about 9/11.

During the question and answer session, the discussion turned to the attacks, and to what extent the U.S. media failed to do its job in reporting about them. A woman stood up and said that she was from New York, that she had witnessed the collapse of the towers, that what she had seen she felt resembled a controlled demolition, and that she wanted to know what the panel thought about the media’s complicity in establishing an atmosphere of disinformation after the attacks. Instead of responding to her question, however, Mr. Luntz ignored her completely and requested that a man in the back row please lower a sign reading “9/11 Truth Now” so that those who “had traveled a long distance that day” could enjoy the panel. “That,” said Mr. Luntz, “is civility.” continued →