Dropped

Looks like the media is backtracking and admitting their errors in not covering the Downing Street Memo. Why has there been so little attention paid to the memo? And more: why won't the story die?

At the Portland Oregonian recently, public editor Michael Arrieta-Walden covered the same territory: "For an international story, the Oregonian primarily relies on material provided from about 10 wire services. The Associated Press, the world's largest newsgathering organization, essentially didn't cover the document in its reports until last weekend in a story mostly about John Bolton, Bush's nominee to become U.N. ambassador. The document then was reported on in an AP story stemming from last week's news conference involving Blair and Bush."

"The original story broke on a Sunday, so it was initially difficult to match without access to government officials and documents," said Nick Tatro, the AP's deputy international editor. Then, the AP editors who repeatedly considered doing a story, he said, didn't necessarily see the document as a clear-cut case of proving the manipulation of intelligence. Also, the demands of other important stories kept diverting them, he said. "Our people felt it wasn't a completely clear comment from the raw material," Tatro said. "It was our intent to do a story, and it just didn't happen."

In response to a request for comment, Deborah Seward, AP's international editor, conceded to Salon in an e-mail, "Yes, there is no question AP dropped the ball in not picking up on the Downing Street memo sooner."

Seward deserves credit for admitting AP's error. But a more pressing question remains about the media at large: Why, in the face of the clearly newsworthy memo -- which made international headlines and went straight to the issue of how and why President Bush decided to invade Iraq -- did senior editors and producers at virtually every major American news outlet let the story slip through the cracks?

"We dropped the ball, whoops!"

The question still remains: is this an intentionally suppressed story? Why is it that such a story simply did not make the rounds? Sure the memo dropped on a Sunday, the eve of the British elections. But in America, there was hesitence to even report how drastic Blair's power-loss had been; and the memo provided a perfect inlet to explain that story, if nothing else.

It seems as though, no, the ball wasn't dropped. It seems more like a perfect pass was tossed your way, press, and there was no coverage, wide open field. And as the ball came closer and closer to your awaiting hands, you got distracted [maybe intentionally!] by some strange quirky side-story or missing woman waiting in the audience.

The ball hit you in the face, but you barely noticed. You didn't drop it; you didn't even try to catch it.