I meant to watch Bill Moyers’ Buying The War on PBS Wednesday night. I heard him on Fresh Air Monday and it was a riveting interview.

Buying The War doesn’t really break new ground. Anybody who’s been paying attention has been aware that misplaced “patriotism,” the buying out of news organizations by giant corporations and concomitant rise of “star” journalists, the politics of access exacerbated by the secrecy of the Bush administration—all this and more has contributed to the way the media was asleep at the switch during the runup to the Iraq war.

I remember feeling helpless as it happened, how even though I would read the occasional report that the aluminum tubes made far more sense as parts for conventional missiles than centrifuges, that CIA and other operatives were complaining about being forced to only report intelligence which supported the case for war, that these were tiny blips, flotsam in a giant tide of conventional wisdom that war was inevitable and just. Those of us with doubts could only hope the war went well, because it was coming no matter what.

Well, we all know how that turned out.

As it happens, if you missed the show Wednesday night, it is available online in its entirety, in both Quicktime and Windows Media formats. Buying The War is excellent journalism through and through, though if you suffer from high blood pressure you might want to be careful. I was furious all over again, watching it.

Not only is it important retroactively, understanding how we got in this giant mess which is going to hurt us for decades. More importantly, as Glenn Greenwald pointed out, the same practices continue today, because the Beltway media don’t think they’re doing anything wrong. They are so comfortable in their bubble of access and privilege and conventional wisdom, they think they’re doing a fine job!

Even if you don’t want to watch web video, be sure and catch the debut tonight of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, with Jon Stewart as guest. That should be extremely entertaining and interesting. I’ve got a gig but I’m going to tape it.