Glenn Greenwald: Interview with former "Donahue" producer and MSNBC pundit Jeff Cohen

[babylonsister]

Glenn Greenwald
Friday May 30, 2008 12:03 EDT
Interview with former "Donahue" producer and MSNBC pundit Jeff Cohen

(updated below)


One of the most amazing aspects of this week has been watching network media stars feign shock over the fact that anyone could suggest that they were "deferential, complicit enablers" of the Bush march to war. It's as though they never heard anyone ever suggest such a thing until George Bush's own Press Secretary mocked them for being meek, uncritical disseminators of government propaganda, and now -- they seem to want to convey -- they're just so confused and astonished that anyone could possibly think that about them.

There has been a mountain of evidence documenting the truth of McClellan's observations about the press for years now. Books have been written demonstrating their mindless deference. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have acknowledged, to varying degrees, that they were complicit in disseminating false pro-war propaganda and suppressing the anti-war case. And the networks themselves -- though they pretend otherwise -- are smack in the middle of a growing scandal over the fact that they continuously presented Pentagon-controlled commentators, plagued by all sorts of undisclosed financial and ideological ties, as "independent analysts" to spout the pro-Government line on everything having to do with the war. War opponents were almost nowhere to be found on those same networks. And their own stars are beginning to speak out about the pressures that were put on them to avoid confrontation with the Government.

To that growing mountain should be added the following:

* This extraordinary column from the McClatchy journalism team that proved that real journalism with regard to administration claims was possible in the run-up to the war. They understandably have little tolerance for the self-serving, transparently false defenses offered this week from the likes of Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson, which they label as "Hogwash. Hogwash! HOGWASH" (emphasis in original). If you read one column in its entirety this week, that one should be it.
(Column here:
http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/nationalsecurity/2008/05/what-happened.html

* This morning, I interviewed Jeff Cohen, the former producer of the MSNBC show Donahue, which was canceled weeks before the invasion of Iraq despite being that network's highest rated show because, as a leaked NBC memorandum revealed, that network did not want to host an anti-war commentator -- not even a single one.

Cohen's comments, particularly as the interview progresses, are very illuminating regarding the corporate and political pressures at MSNBC at that time to promote only a pro-war, pro-Bush view. It's roughly 30 minutes long. The sound quality of the interview is quite good (we're continuously trying to improve sound quality) and Cohen makes many trenchant observations and reveals some very interesting facts about NBC, MSNBC, GE and its various on-air personalities. The interview can be heard here:
http://salonmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o1/mp3s/2008/may/conversations_cohen.mp3

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/30/cohen/index.html

[DCKit]

1. Is it Treason yet? n/t

[baldguy]

2. It was treason a long time ago. Nobody cares.

Except for some far-left wing loonies, and they don't matter.