Gotcha! – but really bad as a source of information

Austin Bay on how Media Gotcha Distorts National Security Challenges:

The worst gotchas are framed to elicit a simplistic answer that reinforces or advances a political narrative. To do this, the talking head must either drastically simplify the past (a relatively benign act) or erase the inconvenient past (a deceitful act).

False premises shape the gotchas I’m deploring. Decision-makers in the past cannot know what we know now. These gotchas usually imply that an alternative decision would have produced a more benign alternative history. They may also presume a shared “enlightened crowd” viewpoint of current knowledge — which may indicate political or social bias.

That’s only about the latest attempt to reinforce the Bush hate syndrome and bring new candidates around to the Leftist view via intimidation