Cartoonist Tom Toles Appears to Take Swipe at 'Wash Post' Editorial Page By E&P Staff
NEW YORK Widely-honored syndicated cartoonist Tom Toles appeared to take a swipe at his home editorial page--at The Washington Post--today with a cartoon <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinion/toles.html?name=Toles&date=20050621> aimed at newspapers that have pooh-poohed the so-called Downing Street memos.
Last week, a widely-publicized Post editorial declared that it was "obvious" that the leaked 2002 British documents, which to many reveal with near-certainty that the Bush administration was determined to go to war in Iraq, "add not a single fact to what was previously known about the administration's prewar deliberations. Not only that: They add nothing to what was publicly known in July 2002."
Critics of the paper have charged that this is not true, and that the Post, among other newspapers, was hardly trumpeting this view three years ago. One of the memos also notes that intelligence to back an invasion would be "fixed" by the Bush administration.
Today, Toles, in the Post itself, joins the critics with a cartoon that depicts a newspaper correction that suggests the The Downing Street memos may appear "to be at odds with pretty much everything you remember seeing and hearing in the runup to the Iraq war." But the correction advises readers: "Your memory is in error. We regret your mistake."
Then a tiny sketch of Toles at his drawing board, which always appears in the lower right corner with a final comment, adds: "The first draft of the rewrite of history."
Alongside the correction is a "Garage Sales" classified ad, which reads: "Prewar Intel, fixed."