Couric's Unintended Candor: US Didn't Launch War on Terror Till 9-11

In the coming hours and days, my colleagues at MRC and NewsBusters are sure to provide comprehensive, in-depth analysis of Katie Couric's debut this evening as the anchor of the CBS Evening News. From the opening segment, whose message was that things are worse in Afghanistan than you realize, to an interview with MSM foreign policy fave Thomas Friedman decrying tax cuts, to anti-McDonald's hypster Morgan Spurlock, ahem, spuriously trying to pass himself off as an opponent of hype, it was all pretty predictable liberal stuff.

But Katie did - unintentionally no doubt - permit a telling moment of candor to slip through the MSM filter. Introducing a segment on Pres. Bush' speech today on matters of national security, Couric said:

"The war on terror began of course with the September 11th attacks on the United States."

"Of course"? Really? Did Katie Couric just acknowledge that despite the multiplicity of terrorist attacks on US interests during his administration - from the first bombing of the WTC in 1993, to Khobar Towers, the African embassy bombings and the attack on the USS Cole - Bill Clinton failed to recognize the threat and launch a war on terror? Is Katie really admitting that it took 9/11 - and George Bush - for the US to take terrorism seriously?

Sure sounds that way.

Mark Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY, where he hosts the award-winning, web-casted TV show Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net