Who Blocked Senate Debate on Iraq? AP Gets it Exactly Wrong

The headline says “Republicans block Senate debate on Iraq” and the story by AP’s David Espo is topped with these graphs: WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans blocked a full-fledged Senate debate over Iraq on Monday, but Democrats vowed to find a way to force President Bush to change course in a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 U.S. troops. “We must heed the results of the November elections and the wishes of the American people,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid, D-Nev., spoke moments before a vote that sidetracked a nonbinding measure expressing disagreement with Bush’s plan to deploy an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq. The vote was 49-47, or 11 short of the 60 needed to go ahead with debate, and left the fate of the measure uncertain. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky described the test vote as merely a “bump in the road” and added that GOP lawmakers “welcome the debate and are happy to have it.” The only problem with this is that it gets the facts exactly wrong. The cloture motion defeated on the 49-47 vote prevented Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, from limiting the Senate debate to only the Iraq resolution favored by his party. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, led the opposition that defeated the cloture motion and thus succeeded in keeping open the possibility that Reid and the rest of the Senate would have the opportunity of debating the Democrats favored resolution AND a GOP alternative. So why are AP and Espo writing that the GOP is blocking debate on Iraq? This is the kind of flawed – others would call it biased, or worse – reporting that is driving the credibility of the mainstream media into the toilet. It stinks, but too often mainstream media folks call such reporting perfume. Espo is a veteran reporter and one of the smartest people covering Congress. When are my journalism colleagues going to open their eyes and see what they are doing to our profession?