The failed fourth estate...

[marmar]

Access of Evil
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2006-06-19 17:33. Media
By AMY GOODMAN, http://www.thenation.com

If President Bush had stood on the steps of the White House with a megaphone when he set out to sell the Iraq War, he might have convinced a few people about the imminent threat posed by Saddam Hussein. But he had something far more powerful that convinced far more people: He had a compliant press corps ready to amplify his lies. This was the same press corps that investigated and reported for years on President Clinton's lying about an extramarital affair. The difference here was that President Bush's lies take lives.

In order to be able to get that all-important leak from a named or, better yet, unnamed "senior official," reporters trade truth for access. This is the "access of evil," when reporters forgo the tough questions out of fear of being passed over.

And then there is the embedding process. Journalists embedded with US troops in Iraq bring us only one perspective. How about balancing the troops' perspective with reporters embedded in Iraqi hospitals, or in the peace movement around the world? Former Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke proclaimed the embedding process a spectacular success. For the Pentagon, it was. More powerful than any bomb or missile, the Pentagon deployed the media.

During the Persian Gulf War, General Electric owned NBC (it still does). A major nuclear weapons manufacturer--which made parts for many of the weapons in the Gulf War--owned a major television network. Is it any surprise that what we saw on television looked like a military hardware show? According to the New York Times, CBS executives "offered advertisers assurances that the war specials could be tailored to provide better lead-ins to commercials. One way would be to insert the commercials after segments that were specially produced with upbeat images or messages about the war."

The rest is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/goodman

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1. The GOP control of media and voting machines is the REAL REASON for why

the Democrats APPEAR to be unable to make gains.

But, while owning control of both, GOPs can just sit and laugh at all their own created storylines against the Democrats.

[patrice]

2. Even the local hires for national affiliates think nothing of inserting

their RW attitudes any way possible. One Fox-bot doing local news recently saw fit to refer to the "controversial" global-warming discussion and "failed" presidential candidate Al Gore.

Completely un-neccessary! They do this because they WANT to shape how people think.