"The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina"
Frank Rich Story aired: Thursday, October 05, 2006
New York Times columnist Frank Rich delivers a scathing criticism of what he calls the "Bush production team," in his latest book "The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina."
Rich said his goal in writing the book was not to reiterate--what most would agree is true--that the war in Iraq was a disaster, but "to explain how...in a sophisticated America with all these media sources...an administration and government could sell a war that the president himself has conceded had nothing to do with 9/11."
A former theater columnist for the Times, Rich filtered the interactions of the Bush administration and the media through a unique lens. He likened a press conference held weeks before the Iraq invasion to a scene from the movie Chicago.
"It couldn't help but remind me of Richard Gere this lawyer slash con man selling the press on the innocence of a client in a song called, "They both reached for the gun," to make it self-defense. And indeed what was the line to sell the Iraq war? It was self-defense."
Even though Rich was critical of the press he faults the Bush administration's lack of planning for what they believed would be an easy war.
"If it had worked out according to their plans, if there hadn't been an insurgency, if Iraq hadn't exploded into sectarian divisions and all the rest of it, they would have looked like heroes," Rich said. "Unfortunately it didn't work out the way they planned and I think the tragedy is they never thought it through."
Guests:
Frank Rich
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