The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush's America

Excellent study of Bush's claims about Iraq

Frank Rich, a New York Times columnist, shows how Bush sold the Iraq war to the American people, and then how reality hit back. He follows the media trail and the Bush administration¿s endless efforts to dominate the media. He shows how, for example, Bush personally authorised the leaking of classified information about pre-war intelligence. Also, twenty federal agencies made and distributed hundreds of fake news segments, complete with pretend independent reporters, like the fictional accounts of Pat Tillman¿s death and of Jessica Lynch¿s capture and release. This was covert propaganda, supposedly illegal in the USA. In Britain, we had similar fictions about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell tube station. Rich studies the USA¿s political culture, particularly its servile mass media. TV news programmes showed war without wounds and routinely assumed that opponents of the war were unpatriotic. The President¿s Daily Brief ten days after 9/11 told him that there was no evidence that Iraq had a role in the attacks, and `scant credible evidence¿ of Iraq-Al Qa¿ida links. Everyone but Blair told him that Iraq had no nuclear capabilities and had never tried to buy uranium from Niger. This didn¿t stop Bush lying the USA into an unnecessary war, lying that Iraq had links to Al Qa¿ida, lying that Iraq had nuclear capabilities and lying that it had tried to buy uranium from Niger. The Blair government echoed the lies. Further, Rich reveals that in a January 2003 meeting with Blair, Bush suggested faking an incident to provoke Iraq into firing on a U-2 plane painted in UN colours. Also, Blair agreed with Bush that during the future occupation of Iraq it was ¿unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups.¿ Now the US state lies that only Al Qa¿ida terrorists oppose the occupation, when a US National Intelligence Estimate concluded that the insurgency is home-grown and thrives on general resentment of the occupation.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

true facts/not bush facts

Very interesting for those who want to know the side of things the Bush administration has left out(FACTS). Most of these points have already been talked or written about but still a great read if you're a Bush fan! With as much time that has been put into misleading people, it can't hurt to hear this side over and over again too. Only those people who don't want to face reality would think this book wasn't a valuable piece of literature.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent reporting!

Frank Rich gives a very detailed and insightful account of the Bush-Cheney Administration's shameless propaganda campaign to justify their invasion of Iraq. Additionally, his account of the illegal disclosure of Valerie Plame's role as a CIA operative was excellent, but with one shortcoming: Mr. Rich glossed over Plame's actual role in the decision to send her husband, Joe Wilson, to Africa to investigate the claim that Saddam attempted to purchase yellow cake uranium from Niger. Her only involvement in that trip was informing her bosses that Wilson had firsthand experience with the government in Niger.

I also found it both curious and disappointing that in his discussion of Hurricane Katrina, Rich omitted inclusion of Bush's stopover in Arizona to attend a birthday party for Sen. John McCain en route to his return to DC to address the hurricane. That trip was further evidence of the President's lack of concern for the lives of the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Perhaps the most valuable part of this book was the appendix which laid out the timeline regarding the invasion of Iraq. It proved that VP Cheney continued to lie to the media and the American people even after the statements concerning Saddam and the WMD's and the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda were exposed as lies.

Thanks, Mr. Rich for a job well done!

Left-Wing Lunacy, Paranoia & Lies

Complete rubbish. If you're the sort of drooling imbecile who suffers from Bush Derangement Syndrome (the compulsive need to blame Bush for every bad thing that ever happened during his presidency), and if you think that putting lies into print makes them any less false, then perhaps you will enjoy having this two-bit hack echo your paranoid delusions for you. If, on the other hand, you actually have a functioning brain in your skull, then move along and leave this garbage for the 9-11 "Truthers" and their ilk.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A little goes a long way...

Like Bush himself, a little of this book goes a long way. Read the first four chapters and you've read the whole book. Very repetitive.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

How time changes everything...

As for Mr. Podmore's 'expert' analysis, how time has changed the 'truth' about who was fighting us in Iraq. Please, people. Don't listen to ANY review when it's done with malice and political bent. Decide for yourselves as to whether or not any book is worth reading. Coming from an Independent, I would have probably read this book when it first came out, but when I saw how it was skewed and who it was written by, I decided to wait and see how things turned out, and as usual, regardless of who's writing a book on the Presidency or the war, it's always done with the author wearing the rose colored glasses of his political party and more often than not, also based upon the author's said party dogma. The average American citizen is smart and can make an informed choice when given both sides to a story, especially when both sides are truthful and not slanted and this is how this book should be read, and only then, can the reader make up his own mind.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great Fiction

This work is a precipitant of an author who has done it all in local journalism and has nothing left to do except bash politicians. Everything contained within the covers has been seen somewhere else in print or out of the mouths of the talking heads. The more I read, the more it's clear that trained expertise is missing from the author, e.g. Katrina analysis. Anyone who has ever worked with disaster recovery knows that responsibility is incumbent first upon local authorities [mayor], then state [governor/adjutant general] and FINALLY federal, not the other way around as implied by this work. The fed's have neither the area specifics information nor the management talent for rapid results.

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Kudos to Frank Rich

Excellent illumination of this Administration's behind the curtain trickery. If only more Americans could see, as does Rich, perhaps America could be more enlightened.

What did Bush know and when did he know it?

What raises this book above all the others of its ilk is the 'Time-Line' section. Therein, with a strong commitment to documentation, Rich lays out what Bush and the champions of the Iraq war knew and when they knew it. What becomes unmistakably clear is that prior to his 2003 State of the Union address, the president had in hand, intelligence that put to lie his soon-to-be-made claims that Saddam was in league with Al Qaeda and that the dictator had sought uranium from Niger. The same intelligence also raised serious questions about Saddam's possession of WMD. In other words, what Rich shows us is that Bush unquestionably misled us into war by 'cherry-picking' whatever intelligence helped him make the case, while discarding far more compelling evidence that Saddam was no threat to us or to his neighbors. So devastating is the 'Time-Line' section of Rich's text that it would easily be used as a basis for impeaching Bush and removing him from office.

Extremely informative

Detailed, informative, and the truth is what this book is based on the actions of the bush administration and their use of propaganda towards the American public. It shows how well and skilled this administration went towards selling the Iraq War and how ignorant media outlets were in facilitating his agenda without facts. This book is truley about the sale of Truthiness.

Disjointed diatribe

Accusation as proof, supposition as fact...a common tactic being employed by the pack member trying for their bite at the carcass. The entire premise undone by irrational, unsubstantiated motive theories. Wouldn't make it as a political thriller...shrill and sophomoric.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

You gotta love Frank Rich!

It may not be new information, but Frank Rich has a great way of illuminating it.

Frank Rich knows how to bring out the real truth about so much!

Outstanding expose of the real story going on in the White House and behind closed doors throughout the government on Iraq and our overall defense situation. I should know because I just left the Department of Justice and Bush political hacks were busy there changing statistics and slanting the truth on so many critical law enforcement issues.

Capital Boring

well I thought it didn't go nowhere just went on and on nothing about 9/11 just about bush's life

It's Fahrenheit 9/11 redux

New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich... That kind of says it all, doesn't it? The left-wing media has pulled out all the stops when they spew their vitriolic hatred of Bush, whether they use 'real' facts or invent their own. Bush has admittedly make some historic blunders since 9/11, including Iraq, imho, but I think sometimes he and his administration are given too much credit (read: blame) for everything that happens. North Korea is Bush's fault too, of course, even tho Kim Jong Il cheerfully signed an agreement with Bill Clinton in 1994, took our $$, and STILL proceeded with his nuclear ambitions. No president does everything right. Bush doesn't do everything wrong.

Another AntiBush Book

It is no shock that during this midterm election there is another anti Bush book and it comes to surprise it is written by a New York Times reporter. They are all left wing journalists who will stop at nothing to spread their propaganda.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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