Will TV News Ever Apologize for Condit Hoax?

[SHRED]

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Like Jeff, I'm not going to hold my breath ether.

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Will TV News Ever Apologize for Condit Hoax?
by Jeff Cohen

For four months beginning in May 2001, major U.S. media outlets, including all three cable news channels, took the American public for a ride -- perpetrating a hoax that a married congressman was somehow involved in the disappearance of a female intern.

As I witnessed the farce from inside cable news, I could see it was all about ratings and had nothing to do with journalism.

This week -- with these same outlets reporting a "break" in the 8-year-old murder case -- would be a good time for TV news executives to look back and give the public a big, fat apology.

TV news served up its spectacular four-month sideshow at a crucial historical moment. During this period in 2001...

* Roughly 20 Al Qaeda terrorists-including two on the CIA terrorist watch list-were deploying across our country, while Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota due to weird behavior at a flight school, and George Bush received a presidential briefing memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

* John Ashcroft's Justice Department was devoting vital resources to surveil prostitutes in New Orleans and medical marijuana clinics in California, while rebuffing (on Sept. 10, 2001) the FBI's request for $58 million in additional counter-terrorism funds for agents, analysts and interpreters.

* Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was demanding billions in "Star Wars" funding, ostensibly to defend America from ballistic missiles -- while threatening a presidential veto (on Sept. 9, 2001) over a Senate proposal to shift $600 million from space-based weapons systems to counter-terrorism.

As they were failing to notice or report deadly serious news during these months, an army of TV "news" personnel engaged in a mindless, feverish, daily pursuit of a previously obscure congressman, Gary Condit.

FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/23-3

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[Initech]

1. Nope. They eat that shit up like breakfast cereal.

[Jamastiene]

2. Nope. They are shameless, self-aggrandizing, self promoting

vultures with no intention of ever changing.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. Don't forget that Condit sued

that creepy Dominic Dunne over what Dunne had written about him, and turned down all offers to settle.

They were on the verge of going to trial when a settlement was reached. Vanity Fair paid up, on Dunne's behalf, and the deal's details were sealed, but I heard that Condit got a very, very large amount of money.

I wish it had gotten more publicity. Bottom-feeders like this common gossip, Dunne, need to have bright lights shone on them as often as possible.

[napi21]

4. I don't wnat an appo;ogy! I want a full admission that the cops &

the media were so focused on Condit that they were willing to ignore anything else! I know Gary was screwing an intern, but so what. I'm willing to bet there's a lot of that going on everywhere! They destroyed Gary Condit because of an obsession! I want media blood on this one!

[MADem]

5. I think "hoax" is the wrong word. I think Johnny Cochran's "Rush To Judgment" phrase is more apt.

He was screwing her, she went missing, so they filled in the blanks....wrongly, as it turned out.

They must have gotten a jailhouse confession, or something. I remember reading about this guy several years ago, that a judge refused to let him out of jail early because she believed that the guy was violent and likely to reoffend. Some speculated at that time that the judge had an inkling that this was the guy who may have attacked and killed Ms. Levy.

[Merlot]

6. Why did it take 8 years to arrest him then?

Was there new information? I also remember reading about this guy then.

It makes no sense unless they didn't want to arrest him until Condit was good and gone?

[MADem]

7. Maybe there was a "jailhouse confession?" I honestly don't know.

Or perhaps they found a shred of DNA evidence amongst her bones and tattered clothing?

The guy was still behind bars--that judge wasn't going to let him out any sooner than she had to, IIRC.

[T Wolf]

8. The hoax was the focus on this bullshit story instead of the crimes of the Bushistas.

Simply another weapon of the propaganda war waged against the American people by the corporate media.