From the Editor's Desk

The tough questions

I haven’t yet read the George Tenet book, At the Center of the Storm, but I’ve seen the former CIA chief interviewed a few times, and found little consolation in his confirmation that the disastrous war in Iraq was unnecessary and that it has been poorly executed.

I find little consolation because the other reality that he confirms is that those in the know inside the administration were as unable or unwilling to pose difficult questions as was the media on the outside.

And that latter assertion is illustrated in our pages this week in a review by Jesuit Fr. Raymond Schroth ( see story) of what was being written on the editorial pages of some of the nation’s most influential papers four years ago. The summary amounts to a sad commentary on the press’ willingness to accept the administration’s rationale for war.

The same point is made in a “Bill Moyers Journal” documentary that aired recently, “Buying the War: How Did the Mainstream Press Get It So Wrong?” It is available on the PBS Web site and I hope it will be repeated a few more times on the air. The documentary is a stunning indictment of the media’s unwillingness to ask tough questions amid the drumbeat for the war.

Among the bright spots were CBS’s Bob Simon, who worked in the Middle East, was familiar with Iraq and knew that what he was hearing from Bush, Cheney and company about all the conspiratorial rumors about Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda and terrorist training camps didn’t make sense.

The then-Knight-Ridder Washington bureau surfaced as one of the few newsrooms in the country where reporters were allowed to regularly write stories questioning the theories and absolutes tossed around by administration spokespersons. Sometimes it was the most obvious and basic questions that fueled their research. Like why would Saddam Hussein allow a biological weapons laboratory to be set up in the basement of one of his favorite palaces, as the administration claimed? Or why would Saddam Hussein, dictator and control freak, allow an enemy, a Kurd (and one of the administration’s exile sources on the presence of WMD) into a nuclear weapons facility, as the Bush crowd was claiming?

In Schroth’s piece the religious press fared a bit better in raising fundamental questions about the wisdom of resorting so quickly to massive violence.

In these pages, on the eve of war, we responded to readers who asked at the time why we didn’t have greater representation in our pages of those who justified the war as a necessary move against a bloody and oppressive dictator.

We answered, in part: “Look at your local press, local television stations, the national and international networks. They have become megaphones for the Pentagon. War as ratings. Retired generals parade across floor-size maps discussing strategies. The latest weapons systems are extolled and celebrated. One has to watch long and listen hard to catch a tough question. The gods of war clearly have center stage.

“From our little corner of the world, we look out and see that things, indeed, are out of balance. The arguments and justifications for war are everywhere. ... Our investment in military solutions is so out of balance to any other approach that any serious discussion of alternatives to war is left languishing on the sidelines.”

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This week’s issue contains the best evidence of why it’s difficult to tell you that Joe Feuerherd, our Washington correspondent, is moving on to other pursuits. He’ll be joining the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities as communications director later this month, as he moves back into an earlier area of interest. From 1991 through 1997, he was a spokesperson for the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, Md.

The cover story this issue on presidential hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback and Feuerherd’s reporting on the further developments at the beleaguered Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington ( see story) illustrate the distinctive strengths of his reporting.

He is expert on not only the contemporary political currents in Washington, but he brings to his view of today a vast reading of American history and biography.

A graduate of The Catholic University of America, he also understands the landscape of the church and holds a conviction that both arenas -- sacred and secular -- should be covered with the same diligence and held to the same standards of accountability.

Putting that conviction to practice in the church is no easy matter. There are no sunshine laws, no conflict-of-interest laws, no requirements that financial details be divulged, no Freedom of Information Act. So it is a testament not only to his reporting skills and understanding of financial forms but also to the trust he developed among sources that spanned the conservative to liberal spectrum that he was often able to ferret out obscure documents. The documents ultimately shaped narratives that too often showed that those with authority to spend money in the church felt no compelling reasons to be transparent with the people in the pews who pay the bills.

His has been balanced, well-researched and intelligent reporting, and we’re going to miss him.

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You may have noticed a “mailed on” date on the front page. It is a step we are taking to let you know precisely when your copy of the paper was taken to the post office for mailing. We are aware of growing complaints of late delivery and non-delivery of issues. Though we are in constant contact and conversation with appropriate postal officials, once the paper arrives at the post office, there is nothing more we can do to assure reasonable and timely delivery. We understand your frustration and hope service improves.

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Correction: The front page headline on April 27 issue said that included among consecrated virgins were Harvard students. Indeed, that may be the case, but we have no basis for making that claim. The Harvard student referred to is Mary Kantor, a doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School, who is doing her dissertation on consecrated virgins but is not one herself.

-- Tom Roberts

National Catholic Reporter, May 11, 2007