"As a Briton, I read BBC News Online every now and again, and I am well prepared to believe that it offers more balance than some of the US news outlets, but please don't advertise it as a liberal alternative! The BBC is very much part of the British establishment and sets its priorities and agenda accordingly."

Absolutely, squiggler. And to that you can add PBS. Some of us here have apparently not noticed, but PBS has taken a turn to the right on many, many of their stories. Or, they present issues with a confrontational, left vs. right format for entertainment value instead of simply presenting the news as it is. PBS also errs by omission of important and relevant facts surrounding an issue, with a failure to place the blame where it lies. (Go watch the recent 'Frontline' program on the Iraq war as a good example)

You might get a more honest view from NOW or Bill Moyers, but Lehrer's NewsHour, Washington Week, and PBS in general? Not any more.

Never mind about Katie; she's just a corporate slave and will say and do anything her masters tell her to do. Failure to do so will result in severe punishment. That fatuous, subservient grin on her face says it all. Media slaves are paid to stand and look pretty. They stand between us and the ugly truth of war and domination. Refuse to participate; ignore the big news outlets and provide the truth about what's happening for your communities. You have got to reach your friends, family, and neighbors! We don't have much time left...

I've read the comments and so many others really hit the nail on its head. Those of us, the ordinary people, could see through this charade and spoke out only to be dismissed as unpatriotic morons. Well, how sweet it is to see the high and mightly overpaid media babblers HAVE to admit their complicity in the Bush's war propaganda program that has unraveled so tragically for so many. A country blown up, millions displaced or dead, our own coming back in boxes or so badly maimed their lives and those of their families forever ruined. Then all we have from the self-aggrandizing, spoiled media is, "Well, we should have done better job, but we were under pressure." Give me a break! How about a trial for treason for the media minions and their bosses? One of the worst of the lot is the NYTimes. We all knew from the get-go FOX was the Bush channel, but the NYT presents itself as a "liberal" paper which is damn disingenuous of them!
How about contributing the next five years of their bloated income to the public treasury their actions helped the Bush administration and its military contractors loot?

To "liberal with an attitude" from May 30th, 2008 1:57 pm

As a Briton, I read BBC News Online every now and again, and I am well prepared to believe that it offers more balance than some of the US news outlets, but please don't advertise it as a liberal alternative! The BBC is very much part of the British establishment and sets its priorities and agenda accordingly.

A key case in point is at the outbreak of war, it was reported by the BBC that Alastair Campbell, chief spin-doctor for the government, knew the "45 minute" claim [how quickly Saddam could launch a weapon of mass destruction] to be false. There was an almighty verbal backlash from the government, which triggered a wholesale raft of apologies and contrite boardroom resignations from the Beeb. Thus with our primary public service broadcaster (PSB) humbled, the war went ahead (and I personally consider this one of the single biggest failures from the British media in preventing an illegal war).

To understand what happened here, it is important to understand the pressures places upon PSBs in Britain particularly. We are unusual in that we must pay for a license to receive TV programmes, and the TV Licensing authority chases people who do not have a license with some vigour (I personally refuse to buy one, and so don't watch TV at all as a result). Unfortunately it is the government that decides the amount of license fee the BBC gets, and so should the broadcaster put a foot substantially out of line, it can be punished financially. Worse, the govt could write a "proposal" to phase out the license totally - a key aim of the corporate media over here - which would server as a powerful signal to PSBs not to misbehave.

The funny thing about the 45-minute story, which is well documented on the internet, is that it was mostly true. Did Campbell himself know it to be false? I think he is a lying toerag, but it doesn't matter - the security services and substantial parts of the British state apparatus knew Iraq posed no security threat whatsoever, and they did little or nothing to correct it (bar a few resignations, which didn't receive much reporting, from the Beeb or other arms of the MSM).

So - whilst the Beeb may be preferable to some of the overt propaganda you folks are suffering in the US - treat it with the caution it deserves!

So they felt pressure from their peers to toe the line in step to the war machine and demogogues because they were afraid of losing their precious jobs. They gave into fear instead of taking the opportunity to be warriors and dig for the truth and question the hawks while they let thousands of innocent people die in a senseless war. Yes they should be put on trial with the rest of the corporate slime.

I don't know about Katie Couric, I think she is just a pone in the boys' club game of gotcha! But I do know that I rarely watch the Sunday TV news show and this has happened in the last 2 years or so. I do watch PBS News Hour, NOW and Bill Moyer's Journal. I have felt for a long time that all this "embedding" with the military destroyed the objectivity of the reports and as basically become a cheerleading session for the troops at the expense of the truth and keeping the citizens properly informed. How sad; as citizens, the military and the political class are suppose to work on our behalf and one of the prequesites is giving us the facts or the truth. Truth-telling seems to have gone the way of the landline phone and soon to be gone gas-guzzling car. Limiting the holdings of the various media corporations many just be the means to recapturing the truth our country so deperately needs.

Aren't corporations granted licenses to broadcast over public airways by the government?
The corporations are therefore beholden to the government.
We need fundamental change in the way broadcast licenses are issued.

My friends, I feel as I read the comments made here that most of us get it! We have been had by the American Dream. We have lived long enough to know the rubbish we have been fed by successive regimes. The very best of them have lied to us and used our money to cause misery, suffering, and endless hopelessness, while we were led to believe that this country was the paragon of virtue and freedom.

American, western world diplomacy and UN diplomacy is nothing more than a pack of twisted lies to make the American capitalistic system, now morphed to globalization the paragon of fair dealing for the benefit of all. WE KNOW THIS TO BE A PACK OF LIES! Faced with the end of humanity we have to look squarely at the everything and particularly the propaganda machine - big media - and face them down. It is my intention to continue to do this as a filmmaker and journalist of the kind that makes no profit but revels in exposing motive, means and ends for the human family. The question . . . the major question is, how do we all survive in the face of this irrelevant western monolith we have built?

This monstrosity called the "free world" does not really deal with what this so-called freedom is for and what is it supposed to be able to do? Certainly it is not for endless continual war and media generated paranoia to continue these endless conflicts that our successive leaders and governments in the west hail as the means for a better life. Certainly, in this one party system America has trumpeted for as long as we can all remember, everyone thinks the USA is grand. But we have seen that we are really not so grand and not so fine.

We have been sold an endless list of enemies that the USA and its cohorts must fight endlessly so we can be free. . .but we now can see it is in the national interest to continue the shopping-mall binge. We have all become consumers, not thinkers. We have all become technocrats and inventors of new ways to make things of little consequence. We have been conditioned to believe that acquisitiveness is the way to fulfillment and the government with media collusion has sold this message so the "consumer society" which underpins this culture can continue burning every drop of oil until the climate has gone beyond its ability to recover. Many of now know that the lies are too heinous to ignore and we know in ourt heart of harts that human kind is here for more than the purchase of a landrover with GPS.

We know that once again it is time for a radical change directed at a accomplishing a stable life for the inhabitants of this planet is the true goal and we can no longer go it alone. America is the people of innovation, the democratic bastion of freedom the model of great culture, music, art. . . but is it really? If we look at the culture clearly the shine becomes less than brilliant.

Joseph Goebbels said, " give me your children and I will give you the world." America has created a generation of people that are sold to technological innovation but without reason or purpose. . . invention for inventions sake. This idea is kept alive in Wall Street, exacerbated by congress and promulgated by media. The can do people, can do what? The media glare holds the mirror of what the American people have become. I would say the image needs revision

I think the majority of the people who spend their time here writing and thinking share many of the ideas above. It cheers me when I hear people above provoked to comment by my thoughts as I too am cheered by many of you and provoked. I think to myself that a new revolution in thought is necessary and may be growing from those who write and those who comment! Who else will do it Hanmity and nonsense?

They should have mentioned their own mea culpa on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. See http://tinyurl.com/5m5oft

Alaskamaid, I agree with you and Nutley. And Bob Marley's Redemption Song says it best, "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds."

Unless you consider Blake's take: "In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear."

But it is confusing. Is it the green one that makes your grow as wise as the trees are tall? Or maybe it's orange? Maybe it's not been offered yet. Maybe its something you already have.

Won't know unless you try, if it doesn't work, just ask Alice, try another bite!

In so many ways, Political zeal is not unlike religion. Too many of us are party polarized. Quite honestly, we rage against the destruction of our country and values but we just make chaotic noise, we spend our energies in name calling and vent in venues of the like minded.

We need to overhaul the election process. As it is, potential candidates have fed at a public trough for so long that they are already conditioned to swallow their outrage and vote for this so the others will vote for that. It trains the conscience to override those little qualms. But, before we can overhaul the process, we must restore some of the safeguards that have been deactivated by the current scoundrels, robber barons, rabid powerful morons, public coffer looters, and the Darth Vaders of this current administration. Where are the anti-monopoly laws now? Did someone repeal the Taft Hartley Act?? And how many legislators quickly caved in to cutting taxes of the billionaires?

We hear from very few of the struggling families that have lost their housing and have no time at all to even begin to think about the government when they are trying to keep their children alive without any resources. The damage that has been done to our country is unprecedented.

We have many thousands of of maimed and mutilated soldiers in German Hospitals that are never even mentioned in the media and we will have to find the funds to care for these individuals who responded to the call of their country and were told that they were protecting their country. I feel we can assume that none of the military personnel told them that we were invading a regime that we set up to keep an eye on Iran since we caused them to not trust the Good Old U.S.A. after we backed the former Shah when the people of Iran wanted to get rid of him.

Putting aside all the suspicions that it is conceivable that someone in this country in high places could well have abetted the damage on 911,as the only beneficiary of 911 was the regime of a very lame and extremely unpopular president whose very election was suspect ; we are where we are. We need to fix our country. Get our priorities straight, clean up Federal Government's over-stepping States Rights, Major voter reform, and some kind of safe-guards against the kind of insanity that takes hold of our minds when something goes boom and we can't find mommy and we're told that God is dead. Damn near everyone in this country got into goose step the minute the towers dropped. Suddenly George was King and most of the populace dropped their knickers and bent over. Lets try to create some safeguard against this ever happening again.

We have interfered with nearly every country on the face of this planet. We are not universally loved. We represent arrogant, spoiled users of the majority of the earth's energy and raw materials, we are fat and wealthy and we do not educate ourselves. We watch pure drivel on television and don't exercise enough. We eat nasty things that are belched out of little drive through boxes and, once out of school, most of us read little and very few read to educate themselves. We know very little of the lifestyles of other countries, we are polarized in our faith as well as politics and we tend to shun all opinions that aren't our own.

Suppose that you aren't going to heaven and that heaven does not exist at all. How many individuals live their lives in a certain way because they have been told that this or that is waiting for them? I don't mean to imply that it matters one way or another, but this is the kind of deeply rooted assumption that a great many religions rely on. I am not suggesting that it is bad or good but it has been a time tried means of controlling people and historically much of the wars used religion as a cover to steal land, riches, resources and gain power. Religion and patriotism are the two most important ingredients for war.

This is our country. We hire the politicians by electing them. That process has to be transparent. Our current process has become so inbred that the current legislators are all powerful when it comes to newcomers. The fix has to be in. Lets clean it up.

When 911 hit and the media went into Corporate mode, I tuned into public radio and never looked back. Imagine that Corporate Media suddenly had no viewers? Talk about a big change. Suppose we were able to designate a day to boycott ABC,NBC and CBS....what a phenomenal message Corporate Television would get! They measure their ratings constantly...even more so during sweeps week....
want to get their attention??? Start emailing all your contacts. Declare Monday, June 30th 2008 the day to boycott the big three and keep it going so every one with a computer at least knows that it is on option to wake up the big boys. It can be a start...

Yesterday's Cumberland Times-News reported on "growing suspicions" among the Iraqi people that "the U.S. intends to maintain a long-term presence in Iraq."

Yeah, maybe those 14 permanent military bases with their movie theaters and Burger Kings tipped them off....

99% of the people around this area would have just read that as received wisdom while chomping down on their Big Macs.

nutley -- you are so right in pointing out that "a deeper cause of official truth suppression may be at work in human affairs"

everything we 'see' is nothing but smoke and mirrors, magician's sleight of hand . . .

but the alternative is taking the red pill, or is it the blue pill, i forget which is which . . .

been down the rabbit hole so long it looks like home to me . . .

We must put our beliefs into daily circulation. Join the Sharpie revolution. Find the crispest dollar bills you can and write "LIAR BUSH MURDERS FOR OIL" on them, with a Sharpie magic marker. Then slip as many of these as you dare into circulation DAILY. We must make our presence known--to each other and to our "leaders". They must feel the groundswell of support if they are to move towards impeaching Cheney and Bush, and ending the war.

This is really a great set of comments. I wish I could take some of you folks along to Thanksgiving dinners with my neocon wannabe relatives, or visit with my hawkish boss. So far as they are concerned, Katie is a stooge of the left. The MSM, other than Fox, is the Liberal media, and Liberal is a dirty word. The left and right do agree, however, that Katie is a lightweight at best.

The vitriol is starting to fade a little now that gas is $4.00 and the slam dunk war won't end, but I heard a few "bomb, bomb, bomb"s at a recent graduation party.

My high school civics teacher (around 1967) once told us while comparing Soviet block propaganda to western (good guy) ideas that "Democracies propagandize themselves". I was too young and ignorant to understand that at the time. We certainly had that during the run up to the war.

I think years of Reaganite then neocon talk radio and Fox have infected many thinking people with this America first - America can do no wrong - only conservatives can lead a true democracy philosophy. Fox sucks people in with the police blotter stories and barbie doll news girls, then sneaks in the O'Reilly and Hannity propaganda, and "journalism" promoting attacking Iraq and now Iran. Geraldo Rivera looked uncomfortable doing the Pastor Wright critique for the umpteenth time.
Not again, boss!

I don't think the MSM comes anywhere close to the blatant Fox propaganda, but it is shocking how the network evening newscasts struggle to find a good turn done by a soldier in Iraq or some other upbeat story but ignore events like the West Coast dock workers one day strike. Even npr dodges controversy. They compartmentalize it to a few interviews on shows like "Fresh Air" much like CBS compartmentalizes real criticism to "60 Minutes".

Remember that the News Medias obligation is not to deliver the news. It is to return a profit to its shareholders.

A Judge in Florida made that very ruling when FOX news fired two Journalists and they filed a wrongful dismissal case. They had been investigating BGH and came to the conclusion after months of research that the use of BGH would likely prove to be very harmful to the Publics health.

Fox news producers insisted they change the tone of the story and its details. The Journalists felt that if they changed the story to what FOX execs demanded, the story would be of no public value and would in fact do more to convince the Public BGH was safe. They would not change the story.

They were fired and filed a wrongful dismissal claim. The Judge ruled that FOX news had no duty to inform the Public nor did it have a duty to tell the truth. The Judge ruled that FOX news had a duty to its shareholders first and foremost and if publication of the Documentary could result in loss of advertising revenues Fox News had every right to suppress it or demand it be changed.

That said a person can still gain information from the news that is pertinent. If one recognizes their duty is first and foremost to the shareholder , a lot of truths can be revealed in a lie.

9/11 is a prime example of that.

"A spokeswoman for General Electric, which owns NBC and MSNBC through its division NBC Universal, said, "General Electric has never, and will never, interfere in the editorial process at NBC News.""

General Electric, in addition to making home appliances survived for many decades on government/military contracts and now they own major news outlets. It smells like a major conflict-of-interest to me!

NEW YORK TIMES,

why the hell would/nt
you do your job?

aND
SAY THE AIR WASNT SAFE TO BREATH?!!

THE EPA CAME OUT AND SAID IT WAS,

NOT TWO DAYS AFTER THE 'terrprosts attacl"

i was in New Yourk Citi three year after, i saw,

"SNOWFLAKES IN THE AI8R IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER"

DONT BREATH THAT AIR THERE!!!!!

EPA SAID IT WAS SAFE, 70 PEOPLE HAVE PASSED SINCE THEN BCAUSE OF COMMPLICAITIONS.

HAVE A NICE WAR

WHAT ABOUT THE NINE = 11
FIASCO

AND
what it meahns for all americans

3,000 americans killed by our oun governmeent...

they knew, that 30 minuets before broudkast time.

kan you believe that Silverstiene got 700 million dollars or more as insurance two months after he took out the policy on the trade centers? does anyone else think that that hole f ing show was just a giant show to mis lead the american people into a f ing endless w a r. ???

as to the article, COURIC, u will burn in hell, no gettin around that,

you and many
others have had your chance to make amendens,
keep wasting time, COURIC, time is all we have..

go to in, di;

a withou
t a bodygourd scqad, see what ha
ppens.

People being paid to lie. Is this news?

Practically everyone who has a job in this country is a whore for his/her employer. Why should on-air media people be any different? They're no different from actors who do TV commercials. So what? The fact that we're even discussing this just points to the overall control and influence corporate media hold over the national debate. The thing to do is ignore corporate media on every level, including talking about them on Internet forums like this one. The real slogan should be: "Ignore Their Media" or "TV is Bullshit" Maybe I'll have some tee-shirts made up....

off22----------

Since the systematic sinkholing of human-to-human truth [i.e. failure of objectively-shared existential pain to liberate systematically mutual compassion] has characterized both collectvist/socialist and individualist/capitalist societies, I would argue that a deeper cause of official truth supression -- deeper than simply "the unregulated corporate media in a capitalist society," must be at work in human affairs.

There are two distortions here --

First, the idea that "patriotic" means waving the flag and going to war --- !!!

Second, the idea that there was anything like a "patriotic fervor" which was a cry for war is also very misleading.
It may be what GE and other right-wing corporate controllers
of our press wanted --- they profit from war.
However, one of the first things our 9/11 families said was
something which pleaded: "Don't turn our pain and sorrow into a reason for war."

And the final point being, who is challenging the corporate-press on their warprofiteering, who's challenging Cheney on his warprofiteering --- ???

Gee all you folks seem to think that people that are smart enough to work in the media, care!
Do you think they care about their community, care about the environment, care about health, education, energy, the war...?
I tell ya they don't. They don't have to! They ONLY need to know two or three minutes at the most about it if at all! They just have to repeat what is handed to them or handed back to them rewritten.!

I wrote a few post back that I worked in TV and the majority of the employees at both stations I worked at OVER ALL didn't really care about issues other than ones that personally were aware of and those issues WERE/ARE NOT community care, about the environment, care about health, education, energy,...their main issue is / was their job and what it takes to keep it!
It's not just the lies made up to have a war in Iraq it's also all the other pre-determined issues, combined with the war lies, that reflects the corporate citizen mindset that thinks corporate news is real or valid. My beef isn't so much with the leaders of the neo-con movement ...and it's not the 30-40% of the public that votes support those modern industrial fascist...it's with the rest of the American public that allows this cold self centered corporate mind set to have so much validity in our world.

The problem is that being "Stupid and Ignorant" is the in thing to be. The majority of Americans seem to treat Intellect and reason with derision. It is something not to be trusted. This has come about through years of conditioning exhibited best by the transformation of the word "Liberal".

Liberal has become a dirty word and Politicians that one would thing are on the left try and distance themselves from being given such a label.

This disdain seeps throughout the entire society with Presidents openly mocking "Science" and the public at large ridiculing "Liberal Campuses" and Professors.

The Public wants something thats nice and easy to understand. They want to read about white girls getting murdered in the Caribbean. They want to read about Politicians having affairs or how noble and heroic their troops are. They do not want to have to think about what they read or question it.

The News media knows this. Thus your 5 or ten minutes of what can be called news followed by hours of a Nancy Grace, the rants of a Lou Dobbs or the superficial nonsense of an O'reilly attacking those "liberals" in San Francisco.

Yes the Media conglomerates are to blame to a great extent but what of the Public? Why are they content with the superficial and the saccharine? Why no appetite for real news and no desire to ask hard questions and think for themselves.

The news is now a business. The media is owned by Corporations that make money off policies that are advocated in the press. We all know that. So why do so many believe they have credibility when they send their so called Journalists out there to transcribe the news that is dictated to them?

Face it . The American public has been dumbed down. It has reached the point that being dumbed down is what they want in their leaders and the news. Thinking gets in the way of watching American idol. The true patriot does not question their government. Doing so is a sign of being able to think for oneself and people who think for themselves, well we just cant have that type round here. They just cause trouble. They outta lock that type up.

Thinking is "Un-American"

The corporate media has been doing this for decades. As RichM said, even the "left wing" of the press lies, distorts, and blindly advances the capitalist/militaristic agenda.

This is NOT the result of a few bad anchors. This is the NATURAL outgrowth of unregulated corporate media in a capitalist society. The number one form of censorship in the field today, I would believe, is SELF-censorship. They all know what is acceptable thought in society, and their thoughts that may, however rarely, fall outside the doctrinal boundaries, never have a chance in hell of being put on paper. They know better.

Now the mea culpas? Those who watched this disaster unfold. Those who were protesting in the streets. Those who wrote in vain to their members in Congress. Those who pleaded by letter and email with a criminal White House. We all knew it was a crock. So many authoritative individuals spoke out before the invasion that there is no excuse for what passed for journalism in the months prior to March 2003. If a housewife in Hawaii, with no particular knowledge, education or expertise could see that the evidence was flawed, suspicious, and questionable, then none of these so-called journalists deserve their title nor their salaries. Thank god McClellan got bit with some bug that compelled him to come clean. Remorse? Guilt? Fear of hell? Whatever it was, it is better he has shed some light albeit waaay too late.

Good posts: BLUE SKY, PASCAL, GALEN.

IKE KAY: I definitely agree with your "closing argument," i.e. final paragraph.

The 1st Amendment protects the freedom of speech. However, the media can no longer hide behind the 1st Amendment as they no longer report or disseminate information. Instead, the media is now the message, and they actively control the message. They are no more than a well-oiled propaganda machine for the Military-Industrial Complex, their boss.

The media is complicit in the deaths of thousands and those at the top should be held to the same standards as any other citizen. No more hiding behind the Constitution, no more hiding behind the lie that it was "sloppy journalism." They knew. Now they should face the music.

WHY IS EVERYBODY SO SURPRISED? 99% OF THESE NEWCASTERS ARE WHORES FOR THEIR CORPORATE EMPLOYERS. UNFORTUNATELY THERE ARE SO FEW WHO CAN BE ..." TRUE TO THINE OWN SELF, FOR THOU CANST NOT THEN BE FALSE TO ANY MAN" (LOOSELY TAKEN FROM WM. SHAKESPEARE)! THE GOOD OLD DAYS WERE TRULY GOOD, WHICH AT SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE WILL NOT APPLY TO THESE DAYS!

typically, our citizens are so dumbly, and blindly patriotic that it's no wonder the media and corporation got sucked into believing hyping the war efforts was in the better interest.

i think, rather than the media and the corporations and the government worrying about how they should play things, reporting of any kind ought to stay factual and leave out hypotheses, rumors, and outsider editing.

in my perfect world, anyone guilty of manipulating reports would be arrested and put to hard time for 10 years :)

Those in MSM should realize that they could prosecuted for aiding and abetting the war crimes, should justice ever be served. They might even get to be cellmates with Bush and Cheney if convicted. That should make them feel better.

This New York Times article failed to mention that it was the Times' Judith Miller who concocted Iraq weapons of mass destruction fairy tales on behalf of the Bush administration.

I guess that's old news.

Dedicated to that wondeerful news stylist Katie Couric (with appologies to another bygone monument to kitsch Lesly Gore)

It's my party and I'll smile if I want to
Smile if I want to, Smile if I want to
You would smile too if it happened to you

Nobody knew where my career would go
When I left the today show
Why's everybody laughing at me?
This is not supposed to be...

The pathetic media seagulls take a crap, apologize, then fly off and do it again and again. Their apologies are salt on a wound.

The old Columbia Broadcasting System was the epitome of American broadcast journalism. For four generations the CBS airwaves were honored by Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Robert Trout, Frank K. Smith, Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite, Charles Collingwood, Roger Mudd, Dan Rather, Charles Kuralt, Ed Bradley and Mike Wallace. More recently, Diane Sawyer, Christiane Amanpour and Lara Logan have earned recognition as well.

Today however, Katie Couric proved what many of us have suspected for about six years: CBS stands for "Corporate Bull Shit" and she epitomizes it. She says she was pressured by network execs and other corporates to go with the patriotic flow on the Iraq invasion. Maybe Katie had an inkling journalists aren't supposed to be jingoists. Ya think? Well, that sure didn't stop her from signing a $15 million annual contract to anchor CBS Evening News in Sept. 2006. Screw journalistic integrity when that kind of scratch is on the table! Hired to help boost ratings, today CBS Evening News is still last among networks. What to do... What to do... Heck, CBS, you've already lost any modicum of integrity. Just dump that TV trollop and get Hillary on the line!

Media whores who have no courage or integrity. Now that Bush's dictatorship is coming to an end and most of the damage is done, they decide to speak up. Of course we figured out what happened before they decided to write a book and cash in on it.

Just like Scottie, these "journalist" are telling us what
anyone with an average amount of gray matter already knows.
The question now is, will they roll over for the attack on
Iran? My guess is yes.

The USSR/Russia had 'Pravda'.

The US has CNNBCBSABCFOX. And the Murdoch owned papers.

Every one of these 'news' organs is owned/controlled by overarching corporations that are frequently headed by former CIA officers, or are outright owned by CIA shell companies. And the vast majority of these corporations have deep ties to the military/industrial/intelligence/corporate system, and have blatant sympathies for the extreme right wing of the political spectrum.

Was Press a War 'Enabler'?

What a dumb question - only the US corporate media could pose such a question. And of course only dumb Americans would put up with them by continuing to patronize the Corporate media.

Remember, even the US Govt. propaganda media, disguised as news organizations could exist if Americans would boycott their products. I have been doing this since the Iraqi war.

Isn't it revolting? After making millions earned on the blood of American soldiers and innocent civilians in Iraq, these media big shots are now all of a sudden taking a hard look at themselves.

Go to hell, Couric. You knew back then you were lying through your teeth, don't blame government officials and corporate executives, you could have quit bitch. You lied solely to protect your pay check.

ike Kay - Excellent Read

I'm left with no words - Thanks

I was an Art Director at two local broadcast stations for a total of 10 years and at least 85% of the products being advertised were items I'd never buy for several reasons like cost, need, environmental impact and worth to me. Most all of the other employees at both stations, mainly in sales, promotional and the news dept. did like... relate to ...and would buy a majority the products advertised. The upper middle class that ran the stations... who dictated the nature of the media ...did so based on only their personal values. I'm sure it's no different further up the media chain. When you look at the subject/topic of the advertising that plays (pays!) between the programing on most all news outlets (most all TV programing!), the values of the ads will reflect the values of both whom the programing is written/framed for and by the originators themselves. When it came to the local "news", it was not written by, presented by or directed towards anyone like me! Any time I objected to content based on facts, moral, political, environmental, social reasons ...anything that didn't relate to the appearance, I was reminded that I was only to be accountable for and concerned about the "look" ...which no one had problems with! That was why even with my verbal protest and letters of discontent to my own management they keep me there at both stations. I did my job.
After realizing that there were only a hand full of people at the stations that shared my views (late night staff, house keeping, production dept.) I realized that I'd never be seen by my peers as any more than the station's token "hippster greenie lefty artist". I grew tired of the "uniqueness"!

I left corporate TV 15 years ago and literally have never looked back! LOL!
I would highly incourge anyone from "getting" their information from ONLY corporate anything! Unless... of course, they share the values of corporate America.
Don't expect real info from corporate news until it gets REAL bad!
Sorry...but really...the revolution is not being televised but on just 3-4 satellite channels out of several hundreds.
Gil S. Heron is still kinda right after all these years! LOL!

CBS will probably send Katie to Gitmo now.

What do you expect when all forms of media (newspapers, TV stations, etc., etc.) are allowed (encouraged?) to form enormous conglomerates that are bought and owned by only a priviledged few? Add to that the fact that "news" stations are subject to viewer ratings. Twenty years ago that was definitely NOT the case. If only our country could be given back to "we the people".

Every progressive who is getting a so-called "economic stimulus" tax rebate should give serious consideration to donating it to independent media such as, WORLD LINK, FREE SPEECH TV, or DEMOCRACY NOW. Give me more AMY GOODMAN and JUAN GONZALEZ.

Every Neo-con,fascist should give their check right back to the government because we all know how much they hate "Socialist" government hand-outs, better yet, they should sign their check over to a wounded veteran.

Iv'e got to give G.E. a little bit of credit for not pulling Keith Olberman off of MSNBC. It shows
that they will let anything on the air if it pulls in big ratings and therefore big profits.

ike kay---right on! brilliant post!

Cheers, Ike kay.

The fact that we're crammed in these corners of the media machine to even have this discussion illustrates clearly how the US has been stripped of its free press.

figmentzenguitar 1:04

You wrote:

"Let us not blame the people for being lied to. People don't generally engage in critical thinking until they're reminded of the consequences of passivity. I think we're approaching a teachable moment. And, I would add, Americans are just like people anywhere else, although it is true we have more stuff. People are still people.

The Left all too often plays into the hands of the right-wing propagandists that we're arrogant elitists. If we're supposed to be about putting people first and the social welfare of our fair land generally, we should have some compassion. We're not going to win anyone over by telling them how ignorant or stupid or fat or lazy they are."

I disagree strongly with your analysis. Americans are not like people anywhere else. In Europe the people overthrow their governments when they have elections that are stolen. In France the people strike whenever their government tries to take away a social benefit or a civil right. I could go on and on here...

And what do I care about the fascist right-wing frame that calls any college graduate arrogant and elitist? There will always be 30% of the populace that believes that crap, and I rather not soften my message to placate them.

Perhaps the difference between us is best explained by your seeing an opportunity for a 'teachable moment" I think we're way beyond that. We're talking about a million dead Iraqis here...killed by those troops we're all supposed to support. What this moment is most in need of is a revolution.

madcow,

I agree with you 100%

figmentzenguitar,

I also wrote letters, marched, etc. and I'm glad you did the same. However, I have little compassion for people who ignorantly supported a war that has resulted in the deaths of 1000s of people. If we're talking about something in which PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE, the American public has an obligation to think critically. There is no excuse.

Well Katie, you are part of the problem. It was you who fawned over the military by saving, "Navy Seals Rock" Were you pressured into saying that?

No surprise here. Or press,media, etc. is a bought and paid for propaganda arm of the government.

That's what happpens when you live in a stupligarchy (rule by the stupid rich)

The US media is doing about your next war in Iran what they did prior to your pre-emptive and unprovoked war against Iraq. Your media is selling the Cheney propaganda line. Your media is cooperating quite nicely with your military-industrial war mongers in prepping the US public by making Iran out to be a villain, when in fact Iran is just looking out for its own interests like Israel does.

As for the Iraq war, where are the critical stories about US conduct in that war? The wholesale destruction of the civillian infrastructure of Fallujah; the poisoning of water wells by your soldiers and by the mercenaries you have hired from Blackwater, Haliburton and the like? The havoc caused by your use of nuclear weapons (so-called de-nuclearized uranium weapons)on the population of Iraq? The fact that huge dumps of the vehicles etc wrecked by your nuclear weapons are so hot that they literally glow in the dark and no-one will go near them? The fact that hundreds of your soldiers and thousands of Iraqi civilians suffer from uranium sickness? Your media has stood silently by as thousands of years of Middle East history and cultural heritage have been destroyed by your soldiers and hired-gun mercenaries. This destruction appears to have meant no more to you than would the tearing-down of some US town's McDonald's restaurant. As far as I am concerned, the fifth estate in the US is moribund.

You were lied into the Iraq war and your media is selling the lies for its continuation and for the next against Iran.

The US has lost its moral right to lead.

I am a Canadian and used to be a strong admirer of what you in the US stood for. No more.

Phil Donahue was fired and his top rated Show eliminated because he took an anti-war stance. "Another words stood for truth"!
I guess Couric and the rest of the sellout crowd don't have his courage.

Only good that may come out of this,is that perhaps America will begin to wakeup alittle and relise they are being lied too on daily basis, by the very people they rely on for truth.
MSM as lost all it's credibility if really ever had any, in eyes of those that really paid attention.
Sometimes I wonder if the American people really have the stomach for the truth about their government about the so-called American way of life.
Or if in finding out the truth they would just turn away and continue to live the lie. I think the latter is true. That is why it makes it so easy for the MSM to sell the governments narrative.
It's not hard to sell someone, something they want to buy!

ASSESSMENT? INDEED!

The media above all must be changed from corporate control of a few. We all know this has become the official propaganda to keep the public told what they are supposed to know, not too much different from Pravda. We don't have a democracy regardless of how misled the public is by the media to think this is a functioning democracy. Change is necessary to give democratic exposure to the all-important ideas the public must know to make an informed decision.

The media must present an understanding of the complex thought necessary to be brought to bear on global complex issues of survival. Certainly a departure is required from the simplistic superficial treatment ad-nauseam we witness each day, which passes for news presented by the Barby-Doll class of newsreader called journalist.

The media who carries their continued assault against progressive ideas and those, who would in any way, attempt to bring different thinking to bear on the so called "American Dream" which has become the world's nightmare. The media must begin to understand its roll as an objective commentator to the necessary changes that must be made to the USA and the world if humanity is to survive. It above all must also be changed to once again give exposure to ideas that facilitate understanding of complex thought on complex issues. A departure from the simplistic superficial treatment ad-nauseam we witness which passes for news.

The media is out of control this election has shown us just how far it has gone to dumb-down the public. The recent move by ABC to remove candidates from the debates was outrageous. They are trying to determine the fate of the country and the world being mouthpiece for special interests and the government, in the process silencing dissent. Scott McClellan showed us the above propaganda that now passes for news and its complicity in pushing this country into war.

Media censure is unheard, the FCC should rule for the public but like the EPA its teeth are continually drawn. The media has no right to exclude any politician who is running for office as happened recently with the ABC debate. The ABC's license would be lifted if the rules were changed but the congress, with the exception of a few push for more media conglomeration supported by special interests. I hope that someone picks up on this thought. We have seen the obsession by FOX and CNN, and others in the form of Wolf Blitzer, and the FOX rabid journalists constantly referring to the Rev. Wright controversy.

Blitzer's bias is clear. He is quick to use every possible negative he can against Obama from the Flag Pin to anything else he could get his mouth around. His support for Clinton has been clear and inappropriate, for CNN to call itself a "fair and balanced" news network. I quote Mr. Nichols: 
" The media pretense of being a fly on the wall has often been preposterous. In the real world of politics — where power brokers and manipulators proceed with the cynical axiom that perception is reality — the fly on the wall is the wall. The political press corps is not observing reality as much as redefining it while obstructing outlooks and constraining public perceptions."

As usual, few are able to see the stampede of the public sheep created by media. I support the change that Obama represents! He is intelligent and wants America once again to be looked upon as a great nation that it could still be and once was. The present "lack of experience" cry of Clinton is preposterous. But picked up by the media who far from being Liberal, has tried to bury Obama with Rev. Wright and nearly succeeded. Could anyone having been near the White house as long as Bush done as badly for the USA? There is experience! However, the discovery of a job approval rating for him at about 28% of the American people speaks volumes about experience. Yet the media seeing this clearly has remained silent! No one could have been as bad as the Bush team, yet McCain still raises this issue with the corporate media thundering silence.

A flight from entrenched American politics is necessary . . . it has ruined this country and made greed the single value of importance. The young people once again embrace hope as a result of the Obama campaign. The Hillary political group and entrenched politics have virtually destroyed America with its policies and exclusive power clubs. She has believed this form government is America and should continue in the face of this catastrophe but no such discussion is ever enjoined in this media. Israel has dropped CNN in favor of Al Jazerza this is the state of American media.

Mr. Gore Vidal, has pointedly criticized mainstream media as one of the major problems, and what is wrong with the USA. The corporate media conglomerates control the message and that message is perversely distorted and panders to its advertising portfolio! Wolf Blitzer one of the glaring examples of this criticism and shows clearly those distorted ideas with his reporting, which is nothing more than partially factual opinion dictated by his bosses.

He is a person who has no right to shape public opinion far from being the "fly on the wall" he espouses to be. We must remember flies morph from maggots. He displays ignorance as a virtue for the entire world to see, an example of what is considered, by many in America to be news reporting. If Blitzer were billed as a CNN commentator, at least the public would not be hoodwinked to believe his reporting to be the truth, while it is lack of concern for accuracy, rectitude and fairness to be considered to be news rather than opinion.

The future leaders, Obama or McCain, should discuss the problems America and the world faces. The questions should have the quality and courage of the ideas that might be an anathema to the public but the government does not want this kind of discussion. The problem of public ignorance of the issues caused by the media is serious. In the heat of elections the media panders to voter ignorance. The emphasis, as we see on nightly, so-called news, is constant repetition of candidate's miscues. The result of the media sensationalism becomes, the wrong problem and the wrong message at a crucial time in world history. The emphasis on having the politicians address a credible platform of ideas based on an American and global interaction in the world is critical but it does not occur.

There is not enough time left for civilization to focus on rubbish. The energy and environmental issues for example or food and health care are the problems the media should be focusing upon. But to use the Rev, Wright issue for one week, to try and hurt the candidacy of Obama is a travesty. The issues most pressing are once again avoided, those really important issues that must be put before the congress and the electorate; the environment, continued funding of Iraq, energy issues, education, health care and so many others not dealt with, all impacting upon the economy, the failure of public dialog is outrageous!

The issues of this election will impact on the environment, economy and the future of the USA as never before. Still, if more than 50% of eligible voters cast their votes it will be a miracle, as a result of regressive US election laws and media obfuscation. It is compulsory for everyone to vote as in Australia it should be so in the USA as well. Few of the candidates are really talking about the major points, even those who are the most erudite. The environment in association with the economy or health care and elections reform, to name some, are kept out of public dialog as a result of the nonsense punditry hours on end. The world looks at America and its "star struck reality" in wonder.

The media reduces the public debate to its most simplistic level with pundits arguing about one inconsequential issues rather than the truly important issues of our time. The American people are kept from hearing and understanding the relationship of the entire group of crucial issues, which a true leader must address for the very survival of America within a global economy. The costs for the war would pay for every single need from health care to American infrastructure repair and education, as well as the alleviation of world hunger and energy research this is what is what is at stake.

The media deals with Rev. Wright and the American Flag lapel pins instead.
The media keeps the public dumbed down for obvious reasons they represent the corporate aristocracy who work with the government for the correct propaganda to be aired. As a result the public becomes unable to talk about moving radically toward change and the related issues affecting their very life and future.

The issues of climate change, energy issues and the global economy, not only American economy, the "free market" system, controls where America is going but we only hear about the cost of gasoline rather than the issues of conservation associated with that idea unless it is at 3AM. All the other issues, including people losing their homes as a result of Wall Street manipulation and are tied to these fundamental problems.

The above is the first and major issue, which affects all other issues and is completely related to the economic changes that must take place. However, this is not news but Rev Wright can occupy one week of airtime. The media board rooms instruct their so-called journalists (news/opinion readers) to stay clear of those subjects that would attack advertising, consumption, tied together in the media collusion with special interests to maintain the consumer system killing the world. Media in collusion with government does not want the change that would result in the decline of there hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.

All environmental problems are in one way or another associated with the Western world's consumption based lifestyle led by the USA. These issues are affected by consumer advertising much of it coming from the millions spent on advertising of irrelevant product and campaign advertising found at news broadcasts.

Phil Donahue was fired from MSNBC and his show eliminated because he took anti-war stance before the invasion.

and let's remember the punditocracy's knee-jerk response to the bombing of the murrah federal building in oklahoma city: "the A-RABS're comin' t' GETCHA!"

after a few isolated but predictable cases of muslim bashing, including several fatalities, it turned out the perps were a couple of buzz-cut, corn-fed, decorated gulf war vets. you might think that some sort of self-examination and contrition would have been appropriate, and you'd be right---but disappointed.

being a media star means never having to say you're sorry. we trust them at our peril.

Couric's mea culpa still doesn't transform her into Edward R. Murrow. She's still nothing more than a vapid sorority sister reading horse shit off a teleprompter. Do what Charles Gibson contemplates - leave after your contract runs out (if not before). No one will miss you and the horse shit will still smell the same, merely delivered by someone else with a Trent Lott haircut and teeth as large and straight as Norman Rockwell's picket fence.

All these years I mistakenly thought it stood for Corporate Broadcasting Shills. But it doesn't really stand for anything. It just means exactly what it says. If you want to see BS, you've come to the right place.

I'm old enough to remember Nixon's demise. Afterwards, you couldn't find ANYONE who voted for him in the previous landslide victory. Flag decals and "America, Love It or Leave It" bumper stickers disappeared almost overnight.

The Haters of the so-called "Silent Majority" went silent, biding their time. A few came out with Reagan, but all were strutting proudly by 2000.

"Sig Heil!" has been heard resounding around the country and across the airwaves for 7 years now. But wait! Bush falters! The rats begin leaving the sinking ship.

And so again, the Haters creep back into their holes. By this time next year, you won't be able to find ANYONE who supported Bush.

Yet, I will remember. Will you?

After all this, CBS wonders why their news ratings are tanking. If they'd report the news in an honest, unbiased fashion I'd probably still be watching. But with the right-wing corporatist/fascist slant, I'm sorry. I'll switch to PBS, thank you.

Goodbye and good riddance, Katie Couric and CBS News!

" Another broadcast journalist also weighed in. Jessica Yellin, who worked for MSNBC in 2003 and now reports for CNN, said on Wednesday that journalists had been "under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation."

On Thursday, she clarified her comments in a blog post, writing that her producers at MSNBC had wanted their coverage to reflect the patriotic mood of the country."

PATRIOTIC FEVER??? PATRIOTIC MOOD??? And just where did this supposed fever come from? The ones who pointed to the Mideast and cried "It was them! They are stealing YOUR oil! Kill them!"

Journalists, politicians, corporations, religion. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Sorry, but the press doesn't go in front of a Neuremburg type trial. They did nothing wrong. The press is all about profit, in a profit driven world. They were just giving us what we want.

Even NPR got it wrong, and still does. And how many of us give them money without saying "here's this because I like this program, and there would be more if you'd tell the truth about..."

Now maybe someone will say "maybe this new truth will sell. Maybe I can get rich exposing these people. Maybe people will actually buy it." But the right has deep coffers and can offer up a quick buyout of the truth.

I guess the right was correct about the "liberal media." Boy, they sure screwed up again didn't they? That damned liberal media, you just can't believe them.

WHY DON'T I HEAR PEOPLE ON HERE TALKING ABOUT HOW THE LIBERAL MEDIA WASN"T SO BAD, AND HOW IF THE TRUTH IS LIBERAL THAN WE NEED MORE OF IT, AND HOW IT MIGHT HAVE ITS DAY IN THE SUN RIGHT NOW AND HOW WE NEED TO TAKE IT BACK? Now's the time to snap back. Now's the time to talk openly about how this is what happens when the propaganda paints the truth as "liberal" and equating that to being evil.

I've always said that the public was more critical in communist Russia than in this country. There, whatever the media told you, you knew it was party-driven propaganda. Here, it's whatever the masses are willing to believe; or worse, whatever they're willing to put up with in a 20 second sound byte sndwiched between superbowl halves.

We need talking points. Here's one: "Oh for the days of the 'liberal media'."

Or "FOX news, Better than that damned liberal media?"

Or "FOX news, fair and balanced corporate propaganda"

Or "FOX news, basically the truth in reverse"

Or "MSM, if it zigs you're well-advised to zag."

A century ago a town would send a snake-oil salesman packing for duping townspeople of their hard-earned money. Then came the right with their "Caveat Emptor" and "nobody ever said life was fair" (i'm sure it wasn't a poor man that originated that, but somehow he's been willing to repeat it). Now instead of a slick-talking snakeoil salesman we are barraged with corporate sales pitches from birth in the morning to grave at night. How are we to defend ourselves?

Damn that liberal media for getting us into this.

As soon as the chaos in Houston materialized, a moment of clarity hit Americans. Just as American Idol was interrupted for a news flash, so was the consciousness of an increasingly knowing republic. That same moment as last time, the moment of clarity that teased meaning into lives directly after the towers were knocked out of the sky, and right before that moment was hijacked by the government's occupation of a complicit media, the moment resurfaced, just like an old dream.

Meanwhile, as the latest Idol was debated and as people continue to be disgusted by the Obama/Clinton media circus, Blackwater & Co. had already begun deploying and preparing for the Hell in Houston--had already given it its media tag.

However, this fact was known because an underground web, a high speed train, an information freedom train, if you will, an underground RR, freeing America's slaves, had been building for an unspecified amount of years, years before Blackwater's evil seed of destruction germinated.

With the last attack on 9/11, the underground web was loosely formed, not very large, and had made the mistake of trusting its government. This time, the message, the train of free thought's movement, had gained a viral momentum, speeding faster, carrying a growing network of passengers who went to work by day, lived normal lives, and took any chance they could to subvert the government/corporate power structure by not buying crap, by turning off televisions, by going under code names like Tuxedo1 and finding pathways into media, by urging people to think, even by voting.

When Houston was destroyed the Peace Train didn't wait to hear CNN's news cast. Instead, the large underground movement steamed into every major news source and gave the people the truth. The people, assuming it was a genuine CNN/ABC/CBS/MSBSC/TSBS broadcast, became outraged. They found a candidate that was as outraged as they were, new candidates cropped up in every state, new parties emerged, the government fell back into the hands of the people. And the poor souls left to defend a complicit Media Industrial Complex repented and faded to black--but never saw that defense printed or broadcast.

I saw a promotional commercial the other day for CBS nightly news with Katie Couric. They flashed glimpses of Cronkite and I about lost it. They're trying to give her some instant credibility and compare her with Cronkite. Shes a piece of shit and there hasnt been any news on television since 2000. if you want to see a news program and actually find out what is going on in the world you need to watch the BBC news. Its amazing the stark difference you immediately see. Katie Couric is reporting on Britney Spears and the BBC about the world food crisis. Where oh where is the fucking outrage.....

The evidence was there for all to see in spite of the lack of MSM coverage.

Many of us as well as others attempted to get attention of the 'sheepies' but failed. We did not do enough, no matter what. We failed.

So, even with that in mind, and the uncontrovertible fact that we have not 'voted with our feet'. we must accept complicity in the war crimes committed by our elected (and unelected) leaders.

I did not hear of too many people who burned their US id cards and renounced citizenship to protest the crimes against humanity carried out in their names.

So, ergo, we are just as guilty!!!

I could be wrong, but I feel that I failed in some way.

To Ms. Couric, Mr. Gibson, and Mr. Williams, et al I bid a hearty "Fuck YOU". You lying, groveling worms did your damage and now want to pretend it was all gubmint and corporate "pressure"? Since late 2001 not one of you had the guts and integrity to stand up and tell the truth. So now it's CYA time, eh?

Too little, and way too late. One can only hope that you'll find the decency somewhere in your craven hearts to commit suicide, and thus the public you "serve" would be much better off.

RE:
Most members of the US press deserve to be set before Nuremberg-style tribunals, and given Nuremberg-style sentences.

I agree.

But lets throw in the entire administration and congress as well. We know they are all guilty. For selling out our country to the highest bidders - the military industrial complex, the oil cartels. And their interests are placed above all of the peoples' interests at every junction.

When government no longer serves the people, when they pass laws to criminalize non-purchase of insurance whether it be for cars or health, when they pass laws to make it legal to infringe on privacy to drug test to allow for education and employment, when they take away habeus corpus and our rights to sue for damages from corporate product liability, they are tools of corporate interests and not serving the peoples' interests any longer.

When government wither away our rights for democratic due process and free speech and rights of free assembly, the people must revolt and remove said government. It is a civic duty. It is a patriotic duty to our country and all those who fought for and died for our inaliable rights as a free people.

The Supreme Court that gave us the 2000 debacle, that made a farce of our democratic process, should also stand trial and impeachment and their punishment should be severe enough as to deter ever again an activist decision as they made. They have proven themselves to be a totally lawless court. They have been criminal in their intent to roll back 200 years of precedence.

I have one more thing to say - to Scalia - the masses WILL one day come for you and it will be messy and you sir will deserve everything that will come to pass when that day dawns. (HA! HA! as if Scalia reads CD!)

You got to be kidding: is this really news to anyone?

News? What is that? The Ameri(k)an people have been getting tripe for decades now. Consider Katie Couric: what could be more pathetic than poor little Katie marching lock step with her corporate handlers and doing their bidding rahter than actually present something news worthy and reflecting the hegemony of the forces of our demise.

Just in case this Cat did not GET IT before. The 'game' has been fixed for years. Wake up, moron.

Well it makes sense if you look at it this way - the corporate media is interested in one thing only, and this thing are ratings. The more people you get to watch, the more money you make on advertisement.
Of course, people watch news they "like" way more (That is what makes FOX so succesful) then news that actually challenge people to thing about issues.
TRUTH does not sell well, EMOTIONS are way better at this, and people at the top do know this very well...

There does not seem to be much of a difference between news and propaganda these days...

They continue to deny and lie. Phil Donahue was fired or cancelled from MSNBC because of his opposition to the war. Only after the polls showed that the majority of Americans opposed the war did they allow dissenting hosts air time.
So sad. Goodbye MSM.

As one who has stood up and lost both a career and government job because of it, I have no sympathy for Couric, Gibson, and the rest of them. They sold their souls for money. They have neither courage nor character. Apology not accepted.

Is this Lucy setting up the football for Charlie Brown yet again? Corporate media cannot be trusted. Sorry Wormtongue, no deal.

Around 911 I still had a TV and I sat glued to it for days watching the spiders spin for their weapons dealing masters. They never asked the questions that I was shouting at the television. How is it a dummy like me could have fifteen or twenty more relevant questions, each and every hour, than these million dollar journalists?

When they were done and the bombs began to fall, I fully grokked and I unhooked the cable from my TV. Now, on a steady diet of Common Dreams and Chomsky and Naomi Klein and Luis Lapham and George Monbiot, I'm seeing more clearly -and like a reformed smoker who can't stand the smell of an ashtray, I get physically revolted by mainstream media bullshit. I had a root canal last month and the worst part was the television screen built into the dentist's office ceiling pumping out brain-sewage MSM news.

Have you noticed that everybody now belatedly 'whistleblowing' on pentagon and media complicity in manufacturing consent for the invasion has already 'got their nut'? They've got a whack of cash tucked away safe, they're retired, and now the outrage must be exposed! It's all Tammy-Faye tears and elaborate self-delusion.

You can't spell DIShoNEstY without DISNEY host. Whatever that means.

madcow --

I spoke out, I wrote letters, I marched in protests, I told my 100s of U.S. history students about the history of U.S. government lies and deception and how this was more of the same.

Let us not blame the people for being lied to. People don't generally engage in critical thinking until they're reminded of the consequences of passivity. I think we're approaching a teachable moment. And, I would add, Americans are just like people anywhere else, although it is true we have more stuff. People are still people.

The Left all too often plays into the hands of the right-wing propagandists that we're arrogant elitists. If we're supposed to be about putting people first and the social welfare of our fair land generally, we should have some compassion. We're not going to win anyone over by telling them how ignorant or stupid or fat or lazy they are.

" Mr. Gibson ... It is not our job to debate them. It is our job to ask the questions."

What a TOOL. A legitimate press would do more than just ask questions, and a legitimate press would definitely question their answers.

So we sit back and blame the media---and that makes us feel better. Hey it's not our fault, right...

Sounds a bit like Bush blaming faulty intelligence about WMDs...

The real blame lies in all those Americans who sat back and watched the farce take place and didn't do a thing about it. Americans are too fat and too lazy to dig a little deeper. The truth was, and is, out there, but most would rather sit back and take in the propaganda and not question authority.

What did you do to stop the war?

All this retrospective self reflection among TV journalists about what questions should have been asked but weren't, and what sort of implicit and explicit pressures were focused on the networks during the invasion of Iraq to marginalize antiwar voices is of course constructive, but why cast this issue of media enabling solely in the past tense?

Today's White House/Pentagon approved spin script insists that the Petraeus surge, the arming of Sunni militias in the great Anbar Awakening, and the fomenting of Shiite versus Shiite warfare central to the ongoing assault into Sadr City all be characterized as evidence of "progress" and "success" however fragile, on a long and winding road towards something invariably labeled "stability" or even "victory."

I still don't hear any of the talking heads on my cable spectrum asking candid questions about how the United States military mission in Iraq has clearly become that of an army of occupation - which is the way the continued American presence in the Middle East is universally perceived by the locals, and by most of the rest of the world - and why perpetuating this occupation is supposedly in our national interest.

Bill from Saginaw

Government officials and corporate executives. What's the difference? We have a banking and corporate oligarchy.

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to
tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of
corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will
endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until
the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed."
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Abraham.Lincoln.Quote.4F97

"General Electric has never, and will never, interfere in the editorial process at NBC News."

No, they don't "interfere," unless you count firing journalists who don't toe the corporate line and hiring people eager to do so. Witness the rise of Couric, Gibson and Williams. CBS is probably surprised that their soft-news darling/cheerleader turns out to be smarter and more conscientious than the other two.

As far as I can tell nothing has changed. This article talks in the past tense. So you guys know it's wrong but you do it anyway. Is this some kind of addiction? I know you don't need the money badly enough to sell out your country, admit it, and keep doing it.

What's going on here?

It's not just the reporters that are to blame here.
The entire MSM and all it's employees are at blame.

When the "nightly news" is marketed as entertainment, and ratings are the only criteria for keeping on air staff, those 'on air' folks will do anything that they can to keep their jobs. The sabre rattling and so called 'patriotic fever' that was sweeping aside voices of reason during the invasion of Iraq had a lot to do with the way this illegal war was marketed.
Any reporter that asked the "wrong" questions would be out of a job. Even many enterainers saw their ratings drop when they spoke out against the war or sung an anti war song. The Dixie Chicks had a real hard time after presenting anti war comments, as did Michael Moore at the Oscar's. Even some popular songs were banned from the air by Clear Channel.

Of course the owners of those stations that caused the on air staff to report murder and maiming in a positive light had their own agenda; by sucking up to and bribing the bush administration with what is known as campaign contributions, they could see that they could control a larger percentage of the news through additional media ownership.

I don't think "traitor" is too strong of a word for the MSM not just about Iraq, but for quite some time. See Norman Solomon's "War Made Easy."

Most members of the US press deserve to be set before Nuremberg-style tribunals, and given Nuremberg-style sentences.

The role played by the august NY Times -- the erstwhile "flagship of American liberalism" -- was every bit as filthy & sordid as that of FOX News. The only difference was that the NYT had to tailor their war propaganda & lying to the tastes of a different clientele. There's of course a difference between low-class lying for redneck morons, and high-class lying for liberals. Liberals prefer Thomas Friedman; rednecks prefer Hannity. It's pretty much the same poison though.

These disgusting media whores want to come clean now? To cleanse their cesspool souls? Too late. I'm sure the thousands of dead soldiers and civilians are thrilled to hear them now come out & say, "But we were under such pressure!!" Cry me a freekin river. And make it deep! Do you mean pressure like the pressure of metal fragments tearing through your bodies? Or was it the pressure of your main income provider being sent to an unneccessary war? Or the pressure of your daddy dying in some bombed out litter box?

I think perhaps it is more the pressure of maybe losing your cushy corporate BS job and possibly losing that summer home and one of the cars.

Honest? Not one of these whores is an honest human being! You want honesty? I want honesty! I want to see dumbass Couric go on TV tonight prime time and spill ALL the beans on everything she knows, has been told, and has been told to supress about this war and this administration. Spill the beans! You want to cleanse your putrid soul? Spill it tonight on TV. That would be the only way to start making it up to the dead for the LIES that helped begin this bloody usseless war.

Disgusting.

At least Couric was more honest than the fatuous Gibson, who may as well be back on Fox News.

jj

Journalistic + Courage = Oxymoron in the "New World Dis-Order".

Shame on all the media. Couric, you make me ILL! Go sign another multi-million dolar contract and sell the rest of your soul!

It takes courage and integrity to bite the hand that feeds you, and the corporate media have kept the fourth estate very well fed. So what do you expect? When jurnalists become millionaires, they start acting like millionaires.

BeForKids

When people ask how I'm doing I say, "people are dying"; I don't know what else to say.

I have expressed outrage in every way I know how. Where is the outrage in this article? People are still dying, profiteering from war is still the reason, and people continue to talk like this is some philosophical abstract suitable for Sunday brunch.

I have tried to be part of something and change it from within; it has not worked. I denounce the broken American so called two party system which cannot be repaired; I reject the MSM propaganda machine and refuse to be subjected to it.

Until America en masse adopts that position, in effect revolt against the new tyranny that oppresses our people, nothing will change but for the worse.

g