Volume 50, Number 4 · March 13, 2003
On 'Fixed Ideas' Since September 11
By Frank Rich
As we have been instructed at regular intervals since September 11, 2001, 'they' attacked us because they hate everything we stand for, our freedoms most of all. If that is the case, history will have to explain why post-9/11 America was so quick to rein in the freedom of debate even as we paid constant self-congratulatory lip service to this moral distinction between them and us. September was not over before Ari Fleischer, the President's press secretary, set the tone. 'There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that,' he said, commenting about a wisecrack by a late-night TV comic, Bill Maher, that had gone against the administration's grain. Lest Fleischer's own remarks prompt an unruly debate, history was rewritten for the public record; the official White House Web-site transcript of the briefing deleted Fleischer's warning, an omission the White House later attributed to 'a transcription error' (but took days to correct) after some reporters noticed it. It's hard to imagine how those who 'hate our freedoms' could have attempted this Orwellian sleight of hand with greater panache.
Feature, 1184 words
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