This section shows how Dan Rather and his colleagues skewed their reporting during and after Gulf War II. For an in-depth look at CBS's coverage of post-war Iraq, see our report "Creating a Quagmire."

After the Saddam Hussein government was ousted, President Bush asked Congress for more money to help rebuild Iraq. Dan Rather followed Democrats in worrying that the $87 billion asked for by Bush was too expensive, a marked contrast to his earlier cheerleading for a $400 billion prescription drug subsidy program. In his story on the matter, White House correspondent was supposed to get "the reaction, pro and con" but did nothing of the sort. Keeping with CBS's precedent of exclusively promoting liberal policy analysts, Roberts turned solely to the head of a (unlabeled) liberal economic think tank.

DAN RATHER: Eighty-seven billion dollars minimum--that is what President Bush is asking Americans to spend for the war on terror, mostly in Iraq but also in Afghanistan and around the world. Eighty-seven billion dollars--that's $300 for every man, woman and child in the United States, and that is just for the coming year, and it's on top of the $79 billion Congress approved less than six months ago. The president revealed his new price tag in a television address last night, and John Roberts reports the reaction, pro and con, is still coming in.
JOHN ROBERTS: The collective gasp of sticker shock echoed from Baghdad to the halls of Congress today, as lawmakers learned the cost to occupy and rebuild Iraq will far outstrip the cost of the war.
Pres. GEORGE W. BUSH: I will soon submit to Congress a request for $87 billion.
ROBERTS: In just four months, mission accomplished has s become mission critical. The extra spending needed to set Iraq right will send the deficit soaring, from a projected $475 billion next year to well over a half-trillion dollars. And that could jeopardize the president's other spending priorities.
ROBERT GREENSTEIN (Budget Analyst): The notion that we could afford tax cuts of that magnitude for the wealthiest people in the country and these ongoing costs in Iraq and a Medicare prescription drug benefit all at the same time--we can't afford all of that.
ROBERTS: Democrats are already talking about rolling back tax cuts to pay the bills. The White House insists the deficit is 'manageable.' That may be true, critics say, but only for a while.
GREENSTEIN: It's not like the tornado that takes your house down. It's like termites: they slowly eat away at a foundation, but over time, they do a lot of damage.
ROBERTS: In casting Iraq as the central front in the war on terror, by inference tying it to September 11th, President Bush sought to blunt criticism for the money, time and sacrifice an open-ended occupation will require. That brought charges from a leading Democratic presidential candidate today that Mr. Bush is manipulating fears of terrorism.
HOWARD DEAN (Democratic presidential candidate): Seven out of 10 people in this country believe that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. That simply is flat-out untrue.
ROBERTS: While no link has ever been established between Iraq and 9/11, the White House today dismissed the charges of manipulation as nothing more than politics. But there is no question that with the president's poll numbers dropping as his problems abroad and at home mount, he needs some kind of rallying point to regain the momentum. Dan.
RATHER: John Roberts at the White House, thanks.
--Dan Rather and John Roberts on the CBS Evening News, September 8, 2003.
Note: Robert Greenstein is the executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal thinktank. print_file('footer'); ?>