WaPo and NYT may or may not have provided decent coverage of what was actually going on during the Iran-Iraq war, not to mention Iran-Contra, but very few Americans outside DC and NYC had enough information to begin to figure it out. It's not like "the media" provided even halfway decent coverage, with the possible exception of the two papers of record.
For instance, I lived in a Chicago suburb during the Reagan/Bush years. I read The Tribune, Time and Newsweek religiously, which meant I was as well informed as most college graduates and a lot better informed than many. I knew what we were being told about the Iran-Iraq war tdidn't make any sense, but there weren't many leaks, and what few dots were provided by the media weren't connected until the 2000s. In other words, there wasn't much to remember about US intervention in the Middle East (aside from supporting Israel) because most of us had only a minimal idea of what was really going on.
Many of us on DU now know exactly what happened then, but we are unusually curious and informed about politics and government at a time when ordinary people can do really deep research.
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