"There was a real sense that you don't get that critical of a government that's leading us in war time," Walter Isaacson, former Chairman and CEO of CNN, told Moyers.

Uh, this isn't a war -never was. It was an invasion followed by an occupation for Iraq's natural resource -OIL!

The 'press' whether printed or televised have (and still are) completely failing at their jobs. They can make all the excuses they want -"oh, we didn't know" "oh, we had to to keep our jobs" ...it's BS. A true reporter finds the truth and reports the truth.

The biggest problem is all the people at the top, the CEOs, the Board members, and the like are all about money and they they themselves are profiting off this invasion, period. They only way our 'media' is going to change is when our government and the people do not allow media outlets to also manufacture defense weapons, period.

I wrote numerous pre-invasion letters to the editor of the St. Petersburg Times opposing the threatened invasion, pointing out that the invasion would violate the UN charter and thus trigger a violation of the US constitution, that Iraq had no role in 9/11, that an invasion of Iraq would constutute a war crime, and so on. None were published. The Times instead published numerous "Let's go to Iraq and kick ass for some 9/11 payback" and other such idiotic letters written by warmongers. When we have our war crime trials, and we will have them, we will put not just the politicians on trial, both democrats and republicans, but their editor-enablers as well. Nor will we forget the on-air enablers.

Katrina Vandnen Heuvel and Bill Moyers can both observe "the press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush administration to go to war on false pretenses." And yet, we need to 'come to terms' with why that might be the case--and do so more effectively than Katrina Vanden Heuvel has done here.

For me, expecting 'the media' to face its complicity in lies and war crimes is a bit naive, it's a bit like expecting a rapist or a murderer to "come to terms" with what they did. The movie "The Corporation" presented the case that corporations, granted legal 'personhood,' would be classified as psychopaths if, indeed, they were people. They know and operate under no ethical system, only the greed of the bottom line. In this era of profound alienation and confusion, even our most able commentators often expect individuals operating within the boundaries of corporations to act like people--to have morals, to take responsibility, to have courage. But insofar as they work for corporations, they must abide by the psychopathological constraints of their employers, or, like Rosie O'Donnell, they can find gainful employment elsewhere.

Corporations must be removed from their role as the controllers of news and information. It is not clear how this can be achieved.

In the past, I have pointed towards this group for creative solutions: http://www.duhc.org/

Jessica Lynch IS a hero - for not allowing herself to be exploited.

Thank you Jessica

I'm with Ron. The MSM ignored the obvious and crammed the war down our throats. Eventually there will be an accounting, and I hope it starts with the true culprits of 9/11.

This is the main issue with our media.

Contrary to the right wing conspiracy theory that liberals want to bring the Fairness Doctrine back to stop Rush Limbaugh from "speaking truth to skinheads", the FD media regulations also include federal media watchdog organizations that could prosecute Limbaugh and his ilk for propaganda/lies in reporting.

By scrapping the Fairness Doctrine the conservative-fascists of the military-industrial complex have successfully grabbed control over the biggest debates in the country by "catapulting the propaganda."

America now has freedom of the press, only if you happen to own a press. (I forget who first said that).

We need to return to THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE WHOLE TRUTH, enforced with bipartisan regulations and transparency.

If we seriously consider the fact that there were no WMD in Iraq at the time the Bush admin (Cheney and Rumsfeld literally) claimed, "there can be no doubt, Saddam is stockpiling WMD," then we must call it an outright lie. There is no wiggle room for blaming "faulty intelligences."

Either there were WMD and Bush knew it or there weren't and he lied. Forget the muddying BS about intelligence. If any of us did something terribly wrong, could we wiggle out of it with the argument that we had received bad information? That is absurd!

What is the president's word worth these days? We won't know until we force him to declassify the records.

Some democracy, eh?

In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one.

HL Mencken

Fourth estate? Our media has become a fifth column in the destruction of our freedom. And it's getting worse. The postal service is coming up with new extortionist mailing rates for small publishers at the request of Time and it's partners in crime. I hope everyone is contacting the US Post Office during it's brief public input period. We're also facing an ongoing assault on net neutrality on the Internet. There is a serious attempt to shut down the exchange of information. One more step in the march to fascism. Think it can't happen here? Well, right here, no. But out there in Disneyland, tney're clueless.

Clueless and sound asleep.

Kathy is absolutely right! go on over to www.freepress.net and start taking ACTION NOW! Get moving. Tell your friends.

Power to the people!!

Two thoughts on this good piece of print journalism from Katrina, and the superb Bill Moyers PBS program.

"It had been less than two weeks since the invasion, and correspondents were delivering a stream of grim news."

Not on Fox. Scarcely ever, and even then only in hushed obligatory tones on the mainstream evening news shows, always balanced off with more color footage of gallantry and expert talking heads gushing over the brilliance of the Pentagon's performance.

But yes, the timing for Saving Private Lynch was indeed perfect. So pause and check out the time frame in another context.

Think of how often recently you've heard or read administration sources (or their enabling pundits) spin us the story of how at first there really WAS some Iraqi dancing in the streets, and it was only gradually later on (well after Mission Accomplished) that the anti-American insurgency began to so slowly, insidiously develop, no doubt egged on by al Queda and Iranian outsiders.

Perpetuating this bullshit about how ordinary Iraqis at first didn't mind being bombed, invaded and occupied by foreigners plays well to a variety of different domestic crowds: the American exceptionalists, the democracy spreaders, the Rumsfeld-haters, and the various Garner vs Paul Bremer schools of thought on how to go about nation building. Thanks for the reminder that hell was already dumped well into the old handbasket within the first fortnight.

"When citizens can't tell real news from fake, they give up their demands for accountability bit by bit."

Just because its become so much easier to look back upon those testosterone crazed, flag waving days of late 2002-early 2003, don't drop your guard and become oblivious ongoing Psy-Ops media campaigns comparable to the feel good Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman fables.

In that regard, check out the whole recent Newsweek issue about chaplains in our combat zones and the historic nexus between prayer and great US Presidential decision making in time of war. I shit thee not, our own Little George shares glossy space with Lincoln at Gettysburg and FDR on D-Day. This reader anxiously looks forward to next week's equally glossy offering, when Newsweek surely will devote an entire issue to recounting the role of God and religion in the American civilian antiwar movements throughout our nation's history.

Also, watch closely how as the surge surges forward, more and more "hard news" stories cataloguing the daily carnage from Iraq increasingly contain adjectives describing the various militias, insurgent groups, religious sects or political factions as "affiliated with al Quaeda" or "related to" al Quaeda or in an "umbrella group involving al Quaeda." It's almost like somebody circulated a new style manual to the embedded reporter pool in the Green Zone.

There's lots more frequent references too mentioning "Iranian made" weaponry being found. Nary a reference ever to American made, German made, Israeli made, Czech made, Russian made or Chinese made lethal devices falling into insurgent hands at the local arms market, but no end to the press releases speculating on whether the number one or number two or number three in Osama's newly reconstituted chain of command has maybe been killed or captured.

Real news or fake?

Abu Ghraib or Zarkawi?

Accountability by both the media doing the broadcast reporting, and by the government that's selling its war, gets lost if we as viewers stop caring about the difference.

Now and then some Real hero's step up to the plate. Jessica Lynch, Tillman's entire family, Cindy and so many others who deal with the world as it is.

All of you so very correct. The real truth is places such as this as you well know. It appears to me the media situation is the same and probably in some ways worse. I fear we have slid to far down the crapper to get out.

Every country gets the leaders it deserves. That is why the American people are sufficiently ignorant to ignore the impression that they will end up as a failed state.

Maybe part of the problem is the overuse of that word "hero." These days, a person simply being in the military appears to justify its application. It didn't use to be that way. Time was when a person was called this due to extreme acts of selfless bravery, not for being injured, killed or just being there.

But now, simply being in a war zone, or being captured — after dropping bombs on civilians from 30,000 feet, as with McCain — suddenly makes one a "war hero."

Our country needs to get over our perverse and antiquated love affair with all things military and start putting people that actually behave heroically on pedestals. It's amazing. If one looks around there are acts of heroism performed that have nothing to do with war or slaughtering hundreds of thousands of women and children.

It doesn't even require spin.

Was the Iraq invasion ever a true war.The Republican Guard put up token resistance,but at the end of the day they quit. Then the occupation and looting began.I am not criticizing the soldiers ,who soldiered on, but I sure as hell as criticizing the Generals who led men into a slaughter house ,without equipment or a battle plan, except to hold onto the oil. I hope the gods of dead Generals punish them for what they have done to the troops. If they had protested en-mass, Rumsfeld would have been out a lot sooner. But they were protecting their pension's. All you Lily Livered Generals, you know who you are, have fun on your retirements secured on the bodies of our dead soldiers

Why is it that Vanden Hueval and everybody else is ignoring the fact that the mainstream media is controlled by seven conservative corporations who control what is printed and said? It ordered no bad news and ordered its editors and reporters to support the Bush administration. It took a year before any MSM reported that the invasion of Iraq was illegal and it is still ever reported, just as an example. Has anyone seen the Dowing Street Memo reported on the front page? It should have been there--but the MSM won't allow it. For a true democracy, the Congress will have to break up the monopoly of the news organizations.

If the committee investigating the Pentagon fiction factory was serious it would demand the identities of the individuals who actually confected the Jessica Lynch and Pat Tilman fables and compel them to describe in detail their assignment, the source of the assignment, naming names, and what they, as pentagon employees, understand to be the law as regards the dissemination of propaganda to an American audience. Such domestic propagandizing was outlawed after the second World War due to the success of one Mr. A. Hitler in treating his countrymen to similar blather. It's good to know that the Bush administration takes lessons from history. Perhaps a better choice of models is in order.

The biggest lie was the last 2 presidential elections, lets not wait for the next.

A "ban Black Box voting machines" bumper sticker campaign needs to be started now, not in Sept 08.

These Neo Cons will never loose another election if the masses are not educated about these machines.

Democracy not.

If you examine some cinematic commissioning choices made by Hollywood in past decades you can see a pattern emerge which exemplifies Lynch's puzzlement at "why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend."

The 2000 movie U571 for example told the fascinating heroic story of the group of US naval service personnel who captured a Nazi submarine and took the Enigma machine and code books, a development that changed the course of the war in favor of the allies. Set in August 1941 it starred Matthew McCaugnahey, Jon Bon Jovi and Harvery Keitel. Heroic stuff! A true story! Well: tru-ish. The events happenend partially in the way depicted, with the perhaps signigicant detail that the events portrayed in the movie happened 4 months before America joined the war. The capture was made by the BRITISH navy.

Amazingly, considering the 10 million Americans in uniform, Hollywood couldn't find an heroic tale left among their stories and had to borrow one from the British. It reflects the perceived need in society to tell a heroic story, never mind the truth. Another good example is 'The Patriot', in which Hollywood writers unable to find one single true story of interest in the whole of the American Revolution (!) have to make up the idea of a church burning nazi-like British officer being hunted down (ironically - as you would think he would have plenty in common with a nazi) Mel Gibson. Pur-lease! Next time you get stuck for a tale you could mention the thousands of African Americans who fought in both armies of the the revolution. Or in Iraq.

I cannot imagine how insulted Lynch feels. I imagine at least as bad as the families of those people who died meaninglessly in this war - half a million Iraqis and all the American casulties - whose stories are not deemed worthy of twisting and lying about in the same way Lynch's is. In the end telling the truth about the fighting - that anyone killed does so alone, ungloriously, screaming in agony - is little good for their poor recruitment figures.

opeluboy, you make a very good point. What horrified me about that whole Swiftboat Retards (or whatever they were called) episode in 2004 was not that Kerry might have lied about his service record but that the fact he was a war criminal was never mentioned. He admits in his own biography to machine gunning to death women and children and not one single person in the media raised. I understand why the republicans didn't - their own candidate was a cowardly deserter and so didn't get to kill any women and children of his (something he has doena lot to resolve since 2000) - but the media did its usual job of failing to point out the possible Commnader in Chief had merrily murdered a bunch of civilians and didn't even think it somethign shameful enough to lie about.

The poetry of heroism appeals irresistibly to those who don't go to a war, and even more to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy. It's always so.

Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Quoting Phobos: "Every country gets the leaders it deserves."

Well to some extent, maybe, but...it's not just that simple to fit into a slogan. America DID in the majority vote for Gore and Kerry, but that's not who they got or deserved.

everytime i read the news now, i first look at the journalist's name and then read the article and decide which department of the Bush administration has paid for it. i haven't found very many non- biased journalists out there anymore. all the public news stations back the bush administration, therefore the journalist can't write what he wants. CBS is owned by Viacon, which gives 95% of there political funds to the republicans as does NBC(owned by GE, also a republican money giver, as is ABC, owned by Disney and Co. which also gives 99% of there money to repbulican politicians for there election or re-election campaigns. and the republicans say it's a liberal news vendetta against the republican party. that's just more propaganda provided by Bush's minister of propaganda. more to say, just not enough time to say it. but now a days, journalists work and are paid, not just by there companies they work for but also by the bush administration and there propaganda machine.

"Every country gets the leaders it deserves"

Kind of pre-supposes that a country is a democracy, which the US is not.

"America DID in the majority vote for Gore and Kerry". That is all a part of the myth: Of the multi-millionaires up on offer the ones with more votes were somehow cheated out of the presidency by a different multi-millionaire.

But Gore or Kerry, if they had won, would have fought wars and destroyed the environemtn and the economy to serve their corporate paymasters. And the simple fact is that a majority of Americans did not vote for them. Around 60 million voted for Kerry (same as for Bush). There are 300 million Americnas. Some are children, a LOT are incarcerated; but a whole lot of people DO NOT VOTE.

Peopl get all pissy at people for not voting, they say that if you don't vote you can't change anything. That is precisely the reason people don't vote - they have leanred from experience that NOTHING changes - each and every government is a government of and for white rich males. They are completely alienated from the political process.

If we continue to speak of America as a democracy then we are not even addressing the problem. It works for an episode of Sesame Street but not for the real world.

Who hears what they want to hear? Who hears that which they don't want to hear? Who remembers a story after a few days? Who can place the significance of a story in context, if they aren't a news junkie or savvy? Who? America has plenty of people who are aware, keep on top of the news but the majority of people are lost in the news and do not see stories as part of a bigger picture. Thus while the media can belabor a BJ and a blue dress over and over for months on end till everyone knew, whether they wanted to or not. We get friday night announcements, short bare bones mentions and little backround to place the story in context or we get biased opinions and talking point comments which for many serve as substitute for information.

You guys do not seem to understand that the US have nothing to do with democracy anymore just BECAUSE you allowed a bunch of thugs to run your country. So that is what you deserve: The current dictatorship is all yours. The only way out of such a situation will be anarchy, like former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Somalia -- countries were thugs once run the country and which became failed states.

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." - Bertrand de Jouvenal

A government of wolves is what we have right now. As I see it, we have at most one more election cycle to turn around what amounts to an entire economic and political dismantling of the American system. We can not expect the press to admit to the problem. The press is full of wolves, and what other journalists are there are mostly sheep held hostage.

And then the news story is gone. If it is reborn in a new configuration, only those who remember, care that it's details and significance have changed. Who remembers when the media substitutes as our culture's 'externalized' memory and the media 'forgets' constantly. Do you remember the Jessica Lynch story? Do you want to know that she said it wasn't true? Perhaps we do have that memory hole where events disappear but perhaps it is our media's memory which fails us. We grew up with the idea that we had a free press which had a tradition of walter cronkites and ed murrows to assure us we weren't like the controlled press of our rivals.We didn't have to remember the details, the press and it's savvy reporters would do that for us. They knew the context, the details, the background and the import of a story and by reading or hearing it, we didn't have to. They'd do it for us. And then the media went from being a free press to an owned press. From months and months about a blue dress to a short piece on page eighteen or a once only 'big piece' on page five, never to be seen again. Our mainstream media has cultivated the memory hole rather than battled against it's formation. Now americans have to search out the in depth news and commentary on it's signicance rather than have it presented to them whenever they picked up ANY news source. Context and background...fair and balanced...um...sure! 'Did you hear' has become 'who knew?'They could have indeed. They should have.We hardly notice ...that they don't.

Indeed...

Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman look like heroes straight out of Hollywood. George, when he's not too busy doing top-gun stunts, shows up with a plastic turkey for the boys on Thanksgiving. Saddam's statue comes a-tumblin' down, and, luckily, the cameras were there to capture the moment for posterity. This whole sick enterprise is war as an advertising campaign.

"Embedded" really means "blindfolded"! I'm surprised anybody believes anything the govt. says anymore. I sure don't! I wouldn't believe GWB if he said the sun came up today. The man is a pathalogical liar and so are all those he surrounds himself with. He even got Colin Powell to lie for him.

Took Jessica a long time to say something -- finally. Perhaps that was all the media were going to give her. The most obvious aspect of the story is how the US military endangered her life by transporting her after her life HAD ALREADY BEEN SAVED BY IRAQI MEDICAL PERSONNEL. The rescue operation always looked fake from the very beginning. It was made for the pod people, the true believers. Nothing revelatory here at all.