Dru Blood - I believe in the inherent goodness of all beings: Meanwhile, back in the US, the "free press" reigns supreme.

DruBlood

Home
Dramatis Personae
Archives
Contact

Feed the Bleed

Full Bleed Fundraiser

Amazon wish list
Cole’s birthday - 10/24
Monk’s birthday - 12/2
Dru’s birthday - 1/5

Search

Syndicate this site (XML)

Special thanks

adam host
julie template queen
kd general lusciousness
pea guru

Powered byMovable Type 1.5

« Democracy in Iraq, at last! | Main | More on "free" press »

Meanwhile, back in the US, the "free press" reigns supreme.

March 31, 2004

ZNet | Mainstream Media | Clarke and Media Failures

You have heard this politicizing of his testimony aided and abetted by virtually every show on the air. He has been on 15 or more news programs and on most of them the questions were the same, as commentator Harry Browne noted on HarryBrowne.org: "Providing their usual support for big government, TV and press reporters repeated and discussed statements Clarke made in 2001 and 2002 -- statements that seemed to back up the charge that Clarke was an opportunistic hypocrite. "But did you notice that every reporter showed us exactly the same statements from Clarke? Some of the apparent 'statements' weren't even complete sentences. Why did everyone who commented on Clarke's apparent flip-flop focus on exactly the same fragments? "They did so because those were the only fragments they had to work with. The quotes were all provided by the Bush administration -- and they're the only quotes available. If the reporters had possessed the original documents, some of them would have picked out other statements or fragments from those documents.

Frank Rich: Operation Iraqi Infoganda

This phenomenon [of faux news broadcasts] has been good news for the Bush administration, which has responded to the growing national appetite for fictionalized news by producing a steady supply of its own. Of late it has gone so far as to field its own pair of Jayson Blairs, hired at taxpayers' expense: Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia, the "reporters" who appeared in TV "news" videos distributed by the Department of Health and Human Services to local news shows around the country. The point of these spots - which were broadcast whole or in part as actual news by more than 50 stations in 40 states - was to hype the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit as an unalloyed Godsend to elderly voters. They are part of a year-plus p.r. campaign, which, with its $124 million budget, would dwarf in size most actual news organizations.

Of course, you will never see THIS reported in the major media.

I'm listening to Public Enemy this morning, making lunch, reading the news, and contemplating Canada.

[I'm sure most of these links were ripped from the comments at Eschaton, which is what occupied the better part of my news reading this AM, and which is where I also found THIS surreal gem:

It is "deeply offensive and contemptible" to hear "elites and intellectuals on the campaign trail" dismiss progress in Iraq since last year's overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), the elder Bush said in a speech to the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association annual convention.

]

Posted at March 31, 2004 11:12 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mt.riceweevil.com/tb/1466

Comments

Are you listening to Air America this morning? I tell you it's making my day! Listening to the O'Franken Factor right now.

http://www.airamericaradio.com/

Posted by: ivyblogs at March 31, 2004 12:49 PM

Sepaking of Public Enemy, Chuck D is on with Franken right now and later he has his own show.

Posted by: ivyblogs at March 31, 2004 12:50 PM