Saturday, May 31, 2008

Bought and Paid For

I have been rather hard on the press because of their seemingly passive role in the lead up to and the conduct of the Iraq war. I never had any independent confirmation of the fact that the press basically rolled over for the Bush administration until now. Jessica Yellin on CNN admitted that her bosses at MSNBC told her how she should cover the war. Here are some of her comments:
"I think the press corps dropped the ball at the beginning. When the lead-up to the war began, the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war that was presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings. And my own experience at the White House was that, the higher the president’s approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president...they wouldn’t say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces. They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical and try to put on pieces that were more positive, yes. That was my experience."
I am very sure that her experience was not unique. I have said this before but when the press is no longer free to present their own views, then we no longer have a free press.

1 comment:

SJ said...

The time for people in media and politics to have come out with the facts, -that truth that we all suspected; was before the last election.
The crimes are complete now. This administration will pass the Iraq "war" on to the next administration. George W. Bush, -the least qualified candidate to become president in the nation's history- has finished a remarkably destructive second term.
Nobody needs to hear Scott McClellan or any other sycophant, hack or traitor finally cop to the truth. No American needs to hear them admit it anymore.
They need to admit it to themselves, -such is the unbearable guilt of helping a bunch of filthy rich elites bleed our nation and its people.
All they can do now is admit it to themselves, in some sad, self-interested effort to silence their conscience. Now they can hide from the nation for the rest of their lives in abject shame at the tragedies they helped along.
-SJ