A must read from a recovering journalist. This is a priceless confession about the run up to the war:
It hit me hard and I knew why. I remembered the story that resulted from that last appointment. I was assigned to write the foreign policy story for the “issues” series that the Strib ran as part of its Wellstone-vs.-Norm-Coleman campaign coverage.
It was the fall of 2002, so the biggest foreign policy issue was the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. Wellstone opposed it, Coleman favored it.
An issue story on the eve of an election is a highly scrutinized exercise in this kind of “balance.” By the time I wrote that 2002 foreign policy issue piece, I had come to doubt the value of such pieces, especially during the run-up to the Iraq war, when the “balanced frame” method seemed to be almost disinforming the electorate. But I did my job as I then understood it, giving no hint of my own strong conviction that the doctrine of pre-emptive unilateral war based on an unproven, non-imminent threat and without the legitimization of U.N. would be a huge mistake and national disgrace.
The rest is here. It’s a good read and shows how much Wellstone impacted peoples lives.
Paul Wellstone Spoke to Me From the Grave
