Posting On The Post

It's one thing to get stuff wrong occasionally, but to have flagrant contempt for the facts, when it can be easily checked, is just stupid. I'm referring today to the latest entry on Joseph Wilson in the Washington Post. In what is supposed to be a balanced piece, Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus get basic things so wrong I'm wondering why the editor didn't spike it.

Let's cut to the heart of the article:

Wilson's central assertion -- disputing President Bush's 2003 State of the Union claim that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger -- has been validated by postwar weapons inspections. And his charge that the administration exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq has proved potent.

Let's ignore the second sentence, which is more editorial than reportage, and concentrate on the first.

Now it's not as if Bush's 2003 SOTU is classified. I just looked it up. He's what he famously said about Iraq seeking nuclear material: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

First, the British government had claimed this. Second, I believe they still stand by this piece of intelligence. Third, notice something missing? Right, "Niger." The claim deals with all Africa, not a particular negotiation in Niger; the Post has had almost three years to get this right and still can't manage it.

Then there's the odd claim that "postwar weapons inspection" validates Wilson's claim. I'm confused. How could weapons inspections disprove that Iraq sought uranium elsewhere?

The article goes on in the same fashion--rather than recounting known facts, it presents a brief for the defense of Wilson. But if it can't get the central claim right, why go on reading?

ColumbusGuy adds: Contrary to your statement that it's stupid -- could anyone reasonably consider Millbank and Pincus stupid? Not impossible, but unlikely -- why do you resist considering this a grade A, prime example of Manhattan media bias? (We all know D.C. is merely a bedroom community).