Still raining, still dreaming

The good folks over at Media Matters have caught the "Truth Tour"'s Melanie Morgan in one lie -

MORGAN: We have no idea what's going to happen. I'm not a psychic. I can't read the future.

But what I can tell you is that, when I talked to the Iraqi general in charge of training troops over there, he was telling us some very good news. They're at 60 percent troop strength now in terms of where they are trying to attain a goal of 100 percent readiness. They're at 60 percent. They're making progress every day.

- but they let another one slide. This is a lie of omission. When she was on Hardball, the host and the other guest both seemed to think the "Truth Tour" was in Iraq for ten days, and she did nothing to correct them:

RIECKHOFF: What I said was, you didn‘t get out of your comfortability zone.

If I could finish, I‘ll respond. I think that you were there for 10 days. And I think you got your feet wet. And that‘s nice. But then you went back to your comfortable house in the civilian world, and the soldiers stayed there.

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: Excuse me, Paul.

RIECKHOFF: And I think, if you really wanted to taste of that experience, you could spend more time there.

(CROSSTALK)

MORGAN: Excuse me, Paul.

I have spent 30 years as a correspondent. I was in Beijing when college students were being murdered. I covered their dead bodies. I have been to Beirut in 1983. I‘ve seen the dead and American wounded. I have had a long, extensive career. So, please don‘t lecture me about my comfortability zone.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Let me go to Melanie.

Melanie, I want to get some reporting here, an opportunity to report.

When you talked to regular Iraqis, what were they telling you? Did you get a sense? I know you couldn‘t take a poll in 10 days, but what were they saying about our presence?

MORGAN: Many of the Iraqis were fearful because of the extraordinary level of IED, improvised explosive devices, that were going off and killing people.

Actually, according to this page, the "Truth Tour" arrived in Baghdad July 12th, and left July 14th. A minor point, but you would think in a discussion on how long it takes to report a situation accurately, Melanie might have wanted to correct them.