The hypocrisy and bias of the mainstream media is astounding, Andrew Gilligan was sacked for saying Blair probably knew the claim that Saddam Hussein could launch WMD within 45 minutes was false, he probably did, if Robin Cook knew it to be false, the likelihood is that Blair did too. Piers Morgan was sacked as Daily Mirror editor because he told the truth about British forces torturing prisoners, but unknowingly used staged photos to illustrate it, (It's worth noting that The Mirror is owned by the Trinity Mirror corporation and it's largest shareholders, Fidelity Asset Management, just happen to be major donors to the Bush re-election campaign, they'd been trying to get rid of Morgan due to the Mirror's anti war stance). Meanwhile the editors who pumped out all the lies, propaganda and fake photos that led to the invasion of Iraq which has killed tens of thousands sit happily in their well paid jobs being congratulated for a job well done.

Virtually every mainstream newspaper, (with the exception of the Guardian, Independent and Mirror), accepted unquestioningly gross hoaxes such as the dodgy dossier and the presentation given to the UN by Colin Powell before the war started, in which he showed artists impressions as 'evidence' and pointed at maps and aerial photos saying things like, "The bunkers are storing chemical munitions. This is just one of 65 such facilities in Iraq." Needless to say, they found absolutely nothing. He claimed that a document existed to show that Niger had sold Uranium to Iraq for nuclear weapons. It was a crude fake. There was a drone aircraft that could attack the east coast of the US. Pure invention. He (and Blair) said they had intelligence proof that Saddam had WMD, but could not give details for fear of exposing informants. Blair said it was ok, we could trust him. There was no intelligence. The dodgy dossier was a plagarised 10 year old thesis, with phrases like "supports opposition parties" changed to "supports terrorists" with no proof to support it. The intelligence services later admitted they had no new information at all. Then there was the 'bondesque' mobile chemical weapon factories, it would be laughable if the outcome were not so depressing. The list is endless, every piece of 'evidence' or reason given for the Iraqi invasion was a monumental lie. Including the 'Humanitarian' argument, (see Pilger Media Feature). (It is also worth noting, Hitler's invasion of the Sudetenland, Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia and Japan's invasion of China, were all 'humanitarian' according to the aggressors).

In the lead up to, and during the Invasion of Iraq, the popular media simply relayed the propaganda to the public unquestioningly, dismissing any dissent, ("Do you support 'Our Boys' or don't you?"). The day after the UN 'presentation' the Sun's front page read "He's Got 'Em...Let's Get Him", with the fake photos and artists impressions plastered all over it. The Evening Standard's front page, after the release of the dodgy dossier, read "45 Minutes From Attack", with pictures of rows of bombs. Yet there is no hysteria in the media demanding their editors resign for misleading the 'Great British Public' or the politicians for putting 'Our Boys' in danger by sending them to fight an illegal and unjustified war. The mainstream media, to a great extent, is just the mouth piece of corporate power, who our politicians are working for when they do things like invade defenseless third world countries.