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Ari Fleischer: Subpoena Me on Torture

What's the easiest way to get a roomful of media people together? Offer them free lunch and a panel discussion on their favorite topic: themselves! The Independent Film Channel employed that strategy today in service of the second season of The IFC Media Project, a witty, progressive-minded critique of the news. However, the most interesting exchange wasn't about the media at all. Rather, it was a digression into the topic of torture, prompted when Wall Street Journal pundit Peggy Noonan admitted that she hadn't been paying attention to a question because she was "daydreaming about something I read in the paper"—namely, the idea of whether the government should launch an in-depth investigation into the controversial interrogation methods used in service of the war formerly known as the War on Terror.

Fleischer, George W. Bush's press secretary from 2001 to 2003, was the only one of the six people on stage at the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio), on West 52nd Street in Manhattan, who was against it. He argued that neither Congress nor anyone else is up to the task, and that any investigation would "lead to acrimony and blame-gaming" and "devolve into the worst type of partisanship." While noting that "no one likes to get a subpoena," Fleischer said, "I'll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena. I'm proud of what we did to protect this country." Those wanting to see Fleischer—or at least some of his former colleagues—on the witness stand include his fellow panelists Noonan, who called for a 9/11 Commission-style investigation, and Tina Brown, who quoted Senator Patrick Leahy's contention that "before you can turn a page, you want to read it." When moderator (and Media Project host) Gideon Yago brought up the idea of a special prosecutor, Fleischer sternly pointed out that "that assumes a crime has been committed."

After that the talk returned to media, with Brown and Noonan offering differing outlooks on the future of investigative reporting (Brown's: cheery; Noonan's: dreary). BBC News anchor Katty Kay gave a pithy lament on the public's tendency to get distracted by overhyped stories—she referenced "pups, pirates, and pigs"—saying, "it's like eating too much candy. We gorge ourselves on a story for 24 hours, then we're sick of it." She was one-upped in the pith department, however, by Pentagon spokesman turned Al Jazeera English host Josh Rushing, who when asked to appraise the work of American news media, answered in part, "TV sucks."