“This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.”. So begins the “Downing Street Memo” and contained within is the revelation that “Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy” – way back in July of 2002!

A week or so ago I opined on how little attention this has garnered in the press.

Dan Gillmor has called the coverage a failure of U.S. media.

Now I’m not a blog triumphalist (err… maybe I am?) but PSoTD has been studiously tracking how bloggers have been keeping this story alive while organizations we trust to provide us with the news have passed on it.

At last count there were 2353 related blog postings (found via Technorati) vs. only 394 related news articles (found via Google News).

Why is that?

The Daily News Daily News: “Deep Throat is 91. He and the rigorous media that held a president accountable are footnotes in history. Their contemporary counterpart? Deep Indifference.”

Of note: Bolton is implicated in trying to keep weapons inspectors from Iraq: “John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat… A former Bolton deputy says the U.S. undersecretary of state felt Jose Bustani “had to go,” particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war.”

Wow.

Today, if I have PSoTDs technique down, there were 616 mentions at Google News. A huge jump most likely due to yesterday’s Bush/Blair press conference where a brave reporter asked them directly about the memo.