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Media Matters Reveals Well-Organized Collusion, Distortion & Lying among Media Figures
[Media Matters, 09/06/04:
It's time to start thinking about buying an assault weapon]
Some samples cited by MM: MSNBC uses discredited, partisan pollster to run "focus groups;" Gingrich's claim that Geo. Soros wants Kerry to win so he can "legalize heroin;" Brokaw's complete failure to question Swift Boat fraud; Limbaugh's claim that Kerry coined the term 'babykiller" (which was used BEFORE Kerry even went to Vietnam); Wall Street Journal used as mouthpiece for Swift boat frauds; Bob Novak's use of his column to promote the Swift boat lies (this coming from the guy who outed a CIA agent then lied about it)YOUR STATE-RUN MEDIA! We’re close to having a state-run media. In the Post, Richard Cohen shows why
[Daily Howler, Bob Somerby, 09/06/04:
First the conventions became a charade, then primaries, and now it's everything] COHEN, FIGHTING MAD: Richard Cohen is fightin’ mad, although it’s not really clear why. Well—we do know Cohen is quite upset because the GOP has been lying. But what exactly have the lies been? And why should a voter believe that they’re lies? Cohen doesn’t bother to say. And therein lies a basic problem as we move toward corrupt state-run media.
The Failure of Fact-Checking at the Republican Convention
[F.A.I.R., 09/03/04:
Facists' broke "the lying world-record" at the republican Convention and corporate media kept dutifully silent]
It is the function of journalism to separate fact from fiction. In covering the Republican National Convention of 2004, the media made isolated efforts to point out some of the convention speakers' more egregious distortions, but on the whole failed in their vital role of letting citizens know when they are being lied to.
Censored!
The 10 big stories the national news media “ignore”
[SF Bay Guardian, Camille T. Taiara, 09/03/04:
See if censored stories match-up to what our fascists would want to hide] ...consolidation of the media in the hands of a few corporate Goliaths has resulted in fewer people creating more of the content we see, hear, and read. One impact has been a narrower range of perspectives. Another is the virtual disappearance of hard-hitting, original, investigative reporting.PROFILES IN COWARDICE (PART 1)! Three Swift vets defended Kerry. But the “press” didn’t dare let you know
[Daily Howler, Bob Somerby, 08/30/04:
It is the INTENT of the press corp to keep false Swift Boat accusations of Kerry alive] Wow! You’d think these statements [by 3 new witnesses supporting kerry] would get big play from a press corps in headlong pursuit of the truth. But if you thought that, you don’t understand America’s current political culture, and you don’t understand the Potemkin “press corps” that pretends to steward your public debate. [Related from FAIR: MEDIA ADVISORY:
SWIFT BOAT SMEARS
Press Corps Keeps Anti-Kerry Distortions Alive]
Fox News rejects ad for The Nation
[NYT, DAVID CARR, 08/30/04:
There's no news in this, just confirmation] "They rejected it out of hand," said Arthur Stupar, senior vice president for circulation at The Nation. "I find it ironic. They are the G.O.P. cable station, a champion of free markets, and they got spooked at the thought of running an ad that doesn't publish spin or serve the agenda of corporate conglomerates."
March On The Media!!!
[F.A.I.R., 08/26/04:
There is no better reason to March!] For the past few years, the mainstream media have marched in lockstep with
the Bush administration. Now it's time to march on the media.
When: Wednesday, September 1, 7-10 pm
Where: Converge at 52nd Street and the west side of 6th Avenue
Public remains poorly informed on reasons for war
[Editor & Publisher, Greg Mitchell, 08/26/04:
Who's to blame, the media or the people?] Again: has the media failed or are most Americans tuned out -- or
tuned in to news outlets that keep them in the dark? The answer is
vital for the future of newspapers...and for the outcome of the 2004
election.Flawed media manipulated by anti-Kerry group
[CJR, Brian Montopoli, Thomas Lang, and Zachary Roth, 08/26/04:
Media unquestioningly serves as Republican propaganda machine] While the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth may have a questionable grasp of the facts, it has been extraordinarily sophisticated in its
manipulation of the media. To understand why this campaign has been
hijacked by a small group of veterans bearing a thirty-year old
grudge, it's worth examining the institutional susceptibilities of a
campaign press corps that allowed the SBVFT's accusations to take on a
life of their own. The SBVFT may have put themselves in the game, but
it's a flawed media that made them stars.How the 'Washington Post' Promoted a War -- Part II
Editors now admit its news coverage during the run-up to the attack on Iraq was terribly one-sided. But the editorial page was even worse.
[Editor & Publisher, Greg Mitchell, 08/25/04:
The build-up to war against Iraq provides a Journalism 101 textbook example of what happens when reporters and editors attach too much credibility to statements by officials] Why keep returning to the question of press complicity in the Iraq war? After all, nothing we now say or do or write can halt the invasion, breathe life into the dead or re-attach thousands of missing limbs. It's a good question, but as one who has written hundreds of thousands of words on the use of atomic weapons in 1945 without saving a life or a soul, it's not likely to stop me.Cable News Reports The Mud, But Purposefully Does Little To Clarify Kerry War Record
[NYT, ALESSANDRA STANLEY, 08/24/04:
Media keeps voters ignorant if the LIE helps Republicans ] Facts, half-truths and passionately tendentious opinions get tumbled together on screen like laundry in an industrial dryer - without the softeners of fact-checking or reflection. Somehow, on all-cable news stations - CNN as well as Fox News - a story that rises or falls on basic and mostly verifiable facts blurs into just another developing news sensation alongside the latest Utah kidnapping or the Scott Peterson murder trial.Six Global Organizations Join Forces Against Bribery for Media Coverage
[US Newswire, 08/22/04:
Without means of enforcement what good will this do?] Six global organizations have announced their support for a set of principles designed to foster greater transparency in the dealings between public relations professionals and the media, and to end bribery [which can range from the lure of big-buck advertising or political favors dangled before publishers to 'gifts' to journalists] for media coverage throughout the world.MEDIA METER: 10 of the Top Least Reported Stories of the Week
[Democrats.com, Cheryl Seal, 08/22/04:
People outside the US are very worried at the warped US news coverage] Anyone who routinely scans multiple sources for news, taking in AFP, BBC, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, US Newswire, and other non-Bush-controlled sources will quickly begin to see the gaping holes in US corporate media coverage.MEDIA ADVISORY:
FAIR Calls for Revealing Sources in Plame, Lee Cases
Courts should respect anonymity of genuine whistle-blowers
[FAIR, 08/19/04:
Some information for Mr. Goss to study] FAIR, the national media watch group, encourages the reporters and news outlets who have been asked to reveal their sources in the Valerie Plame and Wen Ho Lee cases to cooperate with investigators. Protecting the identities of confidential sources is a journalistic right that should be recognized by the courts, but only when it protects genuine whistle-blowers, not when it shields government wrongdoing.STEPFORD! No other word can describe the work of your post-human press corps this weekend
[DAILY HOWLER BLOG, Bob Somerby, 08/16/04:
Pundits have to be given the script before discussing a big news story] ...Experts predict a domestic nuclear attack in the next decade. Kristof reported this two times this week. If your pundits were actually human, wouldn’t someone—somebody, somewhere—have reacted this weekend to that? But your pundits aren’t programmed to talk about that. They talked about clothing, fake claims, stupid jokes. Substance “kind of gets glossed over,” Mitchell said. Someone should tighten her wiring.News Saturation Plus Citizens’ Attention Deficit Disorder Leave Unfinished Business Underreported
[NYT, JACK ROSENTHAL, 08/15/04:
Anthrax? Torture of prisoners? Congressmen bribed and threatened? $billions 'lost' by the Pentagon? Valerie Plame? Bush's DWI's & AWOL?] Saturation coverage now seems inevitably to exhaust the public and leave the media eager to move on. But that means the spotlight goes dark even when the wrongs endure. That, in turn, suggests that this all-news environment is creating a new responsibility for The Times and other serious media: systematically to look back, recall and remind.Bush & Kerry and the Press are Dodging the Issue
Why is al Qaeda at War with us?
[CJR's Campaign Desk, Corey Pein, 08/13/04:
If the US stopped propping-up the corrupt Saudi government, could the other problems between al Qaeda and the US be delt with diplomatically?] It seems to us that both the candidates and a complicit campaign press corps are dodging a fairly essential question -- what drives the presumed enemy in this "war" that both Bush and Kerry have embraced? As the 9/11 Commission's report noted: "The history, culture, and body of beliefs from which bin Laden has shaped and spread his message are largely unknown to many Americans."
[Could obvious omissions of bin Laden's name in speeches & press releases portend secret negotiations and acceptance of a bin Laden takeover of Saudi Arabia?]HOW TO LOSE AN ELECTION
[Daily Howler, Bob Somerby, 08/06/04:
Part 1: Dem(?) pundits plan to lose this race the same way they did in 2000
Part 2: It isn’t that hard to debunk phony spin. Let Jon Stewart—a comedian!—show you
Part 3: Fresh-faced Bill Hemmer called Kerry “most liberal” Why did Tom Vilsack just stare?
Part 4: Voters live in Cartoon Nation. The nation’s big news orgs? Don’t care] American voters don’t have a chance, given the ways of the modern “press corps.” In particular, American voters don’t have a chance to learn even basic facts.Activist Filmmakers Feed the Nation's Hunger for the Truth
[USAToday, Mike Snider, 08/08/04:
If media won't tell the truth we'll go AROUND them with documentaries and the Internet] This media assessment from the Bushie "USA Today" tries to make the current wave of activist documentaries sound like just the latest fad, just moviemakers cashing in, "capitalizing on interest in current events." What a lie! It's the other way around! The activist moviemakers are producing their material so the public is FINALLY allowed to glimpse real current affairs - not corporate spin!"Sovereignty" Afghanized media coverage of Iraq
[NYT, PAUL KRUGMAN, 08/06/04:
KEEPING THE GROWING VIOLENCE IN IRAQ SECRET (until after the election)] [After 'sovereignty'] Iraq stories moved to the inside pages of newspapers, and largely off TV screens. Many people got the impression that things had improved. Even journalists were taken in: a number of newspaper stories asserted that the rate of U.S. losses there fell after the handoff. (Actual figures: 42 American soldiers died in June, and 54 in July.)
A Day in the Life of CNN's Political Coverage
[CJR's CampaignDesk.org, 08/02/04:
Trendy fascism has become blatant] [(From CURSOR.ORG) Analyzing a day's worth of CNN's convention coverage, Campaign Desk says that] "CNN, badly bruised in the ratings war, has stooped to slavish imitation of Fox's most dubious ploys and policies," such as repeating "every possible Republican-generated criticism [of the Kerry campaign] without making any attempt to sort through which are valid and which aren't."
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