“I think it is fair to say that there’s some level of frustration with the press corps … [the President] thinks it’s silly, not borne out by the facts.”

The Whitehouse is apparently becoming frustrated with the public misgivings of perky journalistic pundits. To be more specific, they’re annoyed that people aren’t taking everything they say as fact.

Apart from the obvious irony of it all — opining about democracy and then complaining when you’re faced with the consequences of free speech — the Bush administration can’t honestly be surprised.

Before, during, and after Desert Storm, the American media delivered glowing reports on the military accomplishments while downplaying mistakes. As it would be later revealed, the Patriot missile didn’t work, Hussein was not disarmed, and Iraqis nudged into a US-endorsed uprising were left alone to die.

The angle in 2003 doesn’t seem much different: We have a new Bush iteration and a redesigned Patriot missile system. Cheney is now Vice President instead of Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld still lurks in the background to call the shots. The military again tightly controls the flow of news being released. Aaron Brown and Daryn Kagan play a laughable game of ’show and tell’ with flashcard-style newspaper headlines from around the world. I suppose CNN has to filter their news from somewhere, right?

The President would dearly like to play a game of imaginary “I told you so”, even with ill-concieved planning for an ill-conceived war; generating facts as needed and generalizing a community of people.

Don’t complain when people stop playing because you cheat.