Former "Dateline" reporter blasts NBC

[mrreowwr_kittty]

I really liked Hockenberry when he was doing the show. I wish he would have come out with this stuff a long time ago.



NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A former "Dateline NBC" correspondent claims that in the aftermath of September 11, the network diverted him from reporting on al Qaeda and instead wanted him to ride along with the country's "forgotten heroes," firefighters.

John Hockenberry, who was laid off from "Dateline" in early 2005, wrote in this month's Technology Review that on the Sunday after the September 2001 attacks he was pitching stories on the origins of al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism. He claimed that then-NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker, who came into a meeting Hockenberry was having with "Dateline" executive producer David Corvo, said "Dateline" should instead focus on the firefighters and perhaps ride along with them a la "Cops," the Fox reality series.

According to Hockenberry, Zucker said "that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine."

(snip)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080102/tv_nm/nbc_dc

[Adsos Letter]

1. .......

~snip~


"According to Hockenberry, Zucker said "that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine."

~snip~

And therin lies the problem with most of MSM... no time for perspective...

[Horse with no Name]

2. An educated citizenry is a dangerous citizenry....

I'm sure that all the media whores know that.

[aquart]

3. Well, thank the good Lord.

NBC preferred NOT to give an anti-Semitic blame-the-Jews slant to the coverage of 9/11. How dastardly of them.

BTW, tell me one thing that al qaeda has done FOR the suffering Palestinians? Nobody in the Arab world gives a damn about the Palestinians. Or wants to live next door to them, either. They're a talking point, not a real cause. Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the homelands of our 9/11 murderers, could have opened their doors to the Palestinians. They shut them tight.

Sounds like Hockenberry was fired for bias.

[Adsos Letter]

6. It's not about anti-semitic rants...

It is about providing perspective, no matter how offensive... you have the freedom to discount it.

[Clark2008]

7. Why should the Palestinians have to leave what they consider

their land?

Without getting into an I/P arguement here - because that's not my intention - the fact is that the Palestinians are NOT simply Arabic. They're a Greek/Arabic mix and they settled the former Palestine many, many years ago when they were known as the Phillistines - long before it was "promised" to the Jews fleeing slavery in Egypt.

IMHO, the whole fiasco of "giving" Israel "back" to the Jewish people was not well thought-out by the British (and us).

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. Yeah, but that doesn't mean there should be no looking into motivations either

Shortly after 9-11, people like Susan Sontag were excoriated for having the temerity to suggest that we should ask "why". It was forbidden to do anything but go along with the line of they're evil/we're good. The perfect set-up for the neocons to shove their agenda down our throats. Sure, there might have been some dumbasses spewing anti-Semitic rants had Hockenberry been able to do his stories, but the American people might have also learned some things. Like, oh you know, where Al Qaeda was really from. Instead we have a substantial percentage of people here who STILL think Iraq had something to do with 9-11! You can't be "thanking the good Lord" for that, can you?

You're absolutely right about the way Palestinians are really treated by their so-called "supporters" in the Middle East. Again, that's stuff that Americans should know about, but don't. This allows other groups to come in and fill the void with their nonsense. Firing the John Hockenberrys and replacing them with empty hairdos who stay away from controversy, or neocon shills, doesn't solve the problem.

[Adsos Letter]

14. well said...

:thumbsup:

[baldguy]

4. And allows the pResident to say "They hate us for our freedom"

- while he works overtime to take it away.

[Uncle Joe]

5. I believe it was Jack Welch run GE; who interfered with NBC's coverage of

of the 2000 selection pressuring the news division to call Florida for Bush while it was still in dispute. This after two years of continuous slander by Matthews, Russert, etc. against Al Gore.

I believe Dateline's ongoing To Catch A Predator program is in truth a back door strategy for them to attack the Internet in general. Their goal being to paint the Internet in as negative a light as possible to keep people not on the Internet off of it longer. They hate losing their one way mega phone propaganda machine with all the power, money and influence that went with it.

[suziedemocrat]

10. That's such a sick show.

I think "To Catch a Predator" plays on people's voyeurism. Some of the stuff is pretty sexually explicit. I'm not one for censorship, but I can't believe that show is on TV. I also have a huge problem with the Showtime series "Dexter" where the "hero" is a serial killer. All the MSNBC shows about prison life are pretty awful as well. Says a lot about their viewers, don't you think?

[Uncle Joe]

11. I believe it says something

about just about everybody and the most basic primitive parts of our brain. I've read some people watch Jerry Springer simply because the dysfunctional people on there make their own lives seem less tragic.

But what I believe it says the most about, are the callous, indifferent, greedy, corporate sociopaths; who own or manage the news and who should know better. They have a powerful tool in their hands which could be used to uplift, unite and or enlighten the American People, thereby making us stronger instead of dividing and tearing us down by trying to appeal to the lowest and most common denominator or as some people refer to it the lizard part of our brains. I believe this is a direct result of their short term thinking, and love of power combined with them making the almighty dollar their deity.

I also believe this is the prime reason they hate the Internet, because it represents the biggest threat to their monopoly on information, not just where we get our information, but the ability to talk among ourselves with out having to go through their corporate approved filter. That drives the control freak owners and managers nuts!

It's like they say garbage in, garbage out and I believe we've only just begun to pay the price for this abuse of the American People's trust as a society by the corporate media.

[xchrom]

9. recommend

[Missy Vixen]

12. Hey, I remember John Hockenberry

And I seem to remember that he rocked. Maybe Keith Olbermann needs a correspondent over on CNBC. It would be nice to see Ashleigh Banfield again, too.

It's always good to get all sides and give people the tools to make up their own minds on every story, isn't it?

Julie

[Kurovski]

13. K&R. (nt)

[Didereaux]

15. and guess what the stupid Americans LIKED the pretty firetrucks, wouldn't watch the dirty smellies

[DCKit]

16. Well, just in case anyone doesn't already know...

Al Qaeda was created and funded by our own government to fight and eventually bankrupt the Soviet Union over in Afghanistan. Just thought I'd get that out there.

Not only were all the investigations into Al Qaeda shut down, but any and all links to Saudi persons, banks and businesses were quashed at the highest level. The same is probably true for some of our other allies in the War on America. The information is out there, it's just not "in-your-face" easy to find and the WH, MSM and official deniers have been discrediting anyone who disputes the official version as a conspiracy theorist.

Seven years of the worst, most incompetent and corrupt administration in the history of the U.S. and I am constantly amazed that anyone still buys the B.S. they're selling. There is NOTHING these people aren't capable of and the more horrible it sounds, the more likely it is to be factual.