Truth at Last
In the current NEWSWEEK, Jonathan Alter thanks heaven for the 2006 election and the change in majority party in Congress, explaining in his usual straightforward manner:
Truth has always been the first casualty in war, as the great reporter and author David Halberstam, who was killed in a car crash last week, reminded us. And the press—even at its most aggressive—cannot always get the real story. During the Vietnam War, Halberstam and his colleagues could only take their reporting so far. It required the efforts of people like
Arkansas Sen. William Fulbright to sharpen the debate by holding important hearings. That was in the days when congressmen provided oversight of administrations from the same party. From 2001 until 2007, such oversight
disappeared. Now truth and accountability are making a comeback, and not a moment too soon.
And Halberstam himself, when asked by NEW YORK magazine, What will George W. Bush's legacy be? said this just a week before his untimely death:
It's a national tragedy. It's not just a tragedy for him that he will have gone down as such a failure. It's a great national tragedy to have at that moment somebody who has been so deeply, so much in over his head. And we have a year and a half yet to go.
But that does remind me -- have you heard of the Backward Bush watch? Available as a keychain or clock, it counts down the days, hours, minutes, seconds until we will be FREE of the misery of "Dubya !" Get it @
Positively, Carolan
I do a agree with Mr.Halberstan.
He was one of my favorite columnist.
While covering sports, he was always critical of the people who ran the organizations and the need for change.
We need a lot more David Halberstan in this world.
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