Douglas Feith’s War and Decision was published on April 8, 2008. It is packed with first-hand information about decision making in the Bush Administration, with particular attention to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Included are internal documents that have never before been readily available to the public. Many of its facts are new and surprising.
Scott McClellan’s What Happened, published two days ago, is, by any standard, a far less significant work. Its author was a spokesman, not a policymaker. He played no part in the debates over America’s response to terrorism and has no experience or expertise that makes his commentary more valuable than anybody else’s. Judging by the excerpts that I’ve seen, his analysis is about as insightful as the average left-wing blog’s.
The Nexis database isn’t a perfect measure of media attention, but it’s pretty good. As of this morning, War and Decision had been mentioned in 140 stories over a period of two months. What Happened got 217 mentions – 50 percent more – in two days.
If you think that the mainstream media are engaged in a serious enterprise, the empirical data are against you.
Update (5/29/08): As of late this evening, the count stood at McClellan 355, Feith 143.
Among Scott McClellan’s defenders, side-by-side with Keith Olbermann, is vaguely conservative airhead Peggy Noonan. After a column praising What Happened with faint damns, she concludes, “What’s needed now? More memoirs, more data, more information, more testimony. More serious books, like Doug Feith’s.”
Peggy Noonan has written eight weekly columns since War and Decision was published. These six words are all that she has said about Mr. Feith or his book. More data, sure, but she isn’t going to bother to read it.
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