Blaming Success, Upholding Failure

Center for American Progress: Think Again

Recent history is, sadly, all too often ancient history for many reporters. Time and again as events unfold, reporters--due either to deadline constraints, editorial meddling, or just a failure to grasp the realities of recent history--fail to put events in any sensible context, leaving readers and viewers at sea seeking to make sense of it all.

Comments made Tuesday by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) during a campaign stop are a classic case in point. McCain blamed the Clinton administration's 1994 "Agreed Framework" with the North Korean government, in which the North Korean regime agreed to halt its plutonium production and put it under lock and key overseen by an international team of inspectors, in return for energy assistance.