'THE SHAME OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM'

[ixion]

The debacle in Iraq certainly isn't all its fault, but our national media deserves to stand up and take a bow.
KENNETH NEILL

I've been in this business for the best part of thirty years now, and for most of that time, I've been proud to be a tiny, relatively inconspicuous part of something called the "American news media."

I was not very proud last night. Yesterday evening, I happened to watch a few of the network tv news broadcasts, focused as they were, primarily, upon Tuesday's UN speech by President Bush, and upon another interesting news development, one datelined Guantanomo Bay, Cuba.

<snip>

Mr Halabi faces more than 30 charges relating to espionage, aiding the enemy, disobeying orders, and making false official statements. Mr Halabi was arrested on 23 July but news of his detention only emerged this week. The BBC's David Bamford, in Washington, said defence officials would not say why they had kept the two arrests quiet.

Interesting. Al-Halabi was arrested on July 23rd, and the Pentagon just "happened" to announce his indictment two months to the day later, on the same day as a potentially controversial Presidential speech at the UN?

http://www.memphisflyer.com/onthefly/onthefly_new.asp?ID=2576



Rove calls out and the media whores respond. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic.


on edit:
now if we can just overturn this decision that says the 'news' agencies can lie... that would be a start.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=16627&forum=DCForumID61

[qanda]

1. Excellent article

Something we should pass around.

[teryang]

2. More than fear of shadows

<Thanks to this continuous right-wing bombast, a mood of uncertainty has been created, at the highest media levels. Constant harassment from the right about "liberal media bias" has left national tv news leaders afraid of their own shadows.>

The media were specificly targeted by the anthrax attacks. Just like the Congress. These people mean business. The consistent obstruction of an open ended investigation into 911 or the anthrax attacks is an indicator of a fundamental dishonesty and malevolence that has gripped the country. The obfuscation and avoidance of these issues by the media is based on good old fashioned fear. It is likely that the truth is so bad, they don't want to know. The physical threat is the punctuation mark to the fear of losing your job during a recession. It has been called low grade terror.

The thoughtless passage of the so called patriot act and the unprecedented and illegal extra-judicial incarcerations and punishments being meted out to selected "terrorists" reinforces the fear that these people are capable of any act and can get away with it.

[Manix]

3. Great stuff!

Hope it gets around