(L to R) Landay & Strobel
Might I suggest the one from the McClatchy (then Knight-Ridder) reporters who actually got the reporting RIGHT before the launching of the Iraq War?
Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay.
Yesterday, as we learned Scottie McClellan stopped sweating and can speak actually speak lucidly when not peddling bullcrap, the major media sources were full of their lead talking heads defending how they got it wrong — and their nine and ten figure salaries.
Strobel and Landay, the reporters who got it right — are having none of it:
The news media have been, if anything, even more craven than the administration has been in defending its failure to investigate Bush’s case for war in Iraq before the war.
Here’s ABC News’ Charles Gibson: "I think the questions were asked. It was just a drumbeat of support from the administration. It is not our job to debate them. It is our job to ask the questions.” And “I’m not sure we would have asked anything differently."
Really?
Or this from NBC’s Brian Williams: “Sadly, we saw fellow Americans — in some cases floating past facedown (after Katrina). We knew what had just happened. We weren’t allowed that kind of proximity with the weapons inspectors [in Iraq]. I was in Kuwait for the buildup to the war, and, yes, we heard from the Pentagon, on my cell phone, the minute they heard us report something that they didn’t like. The tone of that time was quite extraordinary.” And this: "“It’s tough to go back, to put ourselves in the mind-set. It was post-9/11 America."
So the Pentagon tells the media what kind of reporting is in- and out-of-bounds?
Hogwash. Hogwash! HOGWASH.
There’s much more to this but it is more than my still waking eyes can digest at the moment, other than to say READ IT! I’m sure other more lucid FDL writers will pitch in with their thoughts later.
Editor & Publisher has weighed in too. And, of course, Glenn Greenwald has been exposing the same story for several years — with many updates.
We’ll see about Howie Kurtz (don’t hold your breath).
You know Charles Gibson and Brian Williams want to wish it away.
But those bloodstains are tough.
(picture from PBS)
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Hey, Attaturk.
bmaz linked to this at Emptywheel, where there are some good responses in the comments.
I didn’t follow all the links, but did read the article. I really liked how they let their work speak for itself and kept the rest short and to the point. I wouldn’t have blamed them for indulging in significantly more, and more stinging, smacking around of their piss-poor excuses for journamalistic colleagues.
FunnyDiva
Just get rid of the MSM and let the BBC takeover.
digg it!
bbc is better – much better, but they have their own problems and blind spots (see media lens for some of this).
personally i’d rather see thousand of smaller sources instead of one giant media monopoly. and may hundreds of them be a good as democracy now!
Event FDL has it’s blind spots and problems. . .geeze.
so why would i choose to have the entire MSM replaced by ANY one source?
I don’t know, why would you? Great article by the way.
i wouldn’t. that was the point i was trying to make (apparently not very well).
personally i’d rather see thousand of smaller sources instead of one giant media monopoly
Isn’t that what this is. . .you know, like, the world wide internet?.
Morning all. Delightful day here. Sun is shining, tide is in, birds are singing and the same old shit is coming from MSM.
Of course you bloody wouldn’t because you are too effin’ stoopid
Good morning, pups. Paul Krugman is off today. That dull tool Bobo has taken it upon himself to instruct us about “The Reality Situation.” He states we don’t understand the Iranians because the Iranians don’t understand themselves, and until they resolve their internal ambiguity, they won’t be able to make a strategic shift.
http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/
The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got French toast this morning. Still hoping for rain, which didn’t happen yesterday… Have a great Friday.
no, i don’t think so. i think the internet is a distribution system that allows readers to choose their sources, because it’s just as easy to connect to the nyt as it is to haretz or some blogge on the ground reporting who just happens to be in the middle of events (or some blogger’s analysis in the middle of nowhere). that gives readers the power to make their own choices – and is therefore encouraging the development of millions (not thousands!) of sources.
not trying to be contrary, but i really do see the internet as a means of distribution that currently bypasses old gate keepers but that might easily be changed if the “owners” of the last mile of connection are permitted to use the cable tv business model (where they are the gatekeepers). for example, if we lost the right to net neutrality.
“It is not our job to debate them. It is our job to ask the questions.”
Charlie, old boy…the American People don’t expect a DEBATE – what they expect is for you guys to ask the hard questions. If the Administration prefers to lie or not answer them, the American People expect for you to report THAT and tell it like it is: “XXX would not answer that question.” Or, “”xxx said, “yyyyy.” Evidence shows zzz.
THAT is what the American People expect. Not tools of the Admnistration.
Another book from another “disgruntled” lackey from bushco. As time goes on the “revelations” are going to be “more surprising”, “more shocking” and worth a lot more money to the erstwhile acolytes who now become whores to the publishing world. I guess these rats are are content to take the money from bushco as long as it is profitable but when the bushco brand starts to sink it is time to look for another revenue source. Great. But if these pathetic pricks had had the balls to tell the truth when it mattered bush would be back clearing brush in crawford and cheney would be shooting his buddies in wyoming instead of them both murdering masses in Iraq and threatening mayhem in Iran. Too little to late scottie boy. Fancynancy has already set the table for dinner and it seems bushco is not invited.
mornin’ all.
I’d be interested in finding out from Brian Williams just which part of the Pentagon was jumpin’ down his throat – the real one, or Doug Feith’s shop?
and here is the thing, just about everybody here knew the president was full of crap in the run up to the war
why is that?
I am from a military family and we knew the president was full of crap, so why were we imune from the propaganda?
I kept saying to everyone;
“we have satalites that can count the hair on your arm, if there are wmds we know were they are”
“it doesn’t matter if he has these weapons or not, we can surgically remove them if we do and he still has to deliver them, there is no “eminent threat” that should bring us to war and occupation”
“when it’s the president’s aids that tell us attacking Iraq is a big mistake, you have to pay attention”
so now, all this is brutally obvious to everyone else, but why was it brutally obvious to us?
Well hell no! We don’t allow the truth to be printed over here, we do not under any circumstances allow our children to learn the truth, warts and all, about recent history. We huff and puff about how great America is and how we can do no wrong and we wonder why we don’t understand the Iranians. Censored America would not know the truth if it came and bit them on the ass… witness 9/11 and still all the lies about “we didn’t know” “what memo” “bin Laden was from Afghanistan” “Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with it”. The mass of America gets their “news” from a propaganda machine that churns out a new lie every second so by the end of a minute the news has turned to “fact”. Of course we do understand the Iranians we don’t understand the difference between lies and facts let alone the nuances of international diplomacy.
Good morning.
For a second blog, may I suggest either (or both) of the below, on a court ruling that sounds like a pretty big deal:
BK [Bankruptcy] Judge Rules Stated Income HELOC Debt Dischargeable
or Bankruptcy Reform Act Finally Blows Sky High on the same subject. IOW, the bank shuddanode, and frankly the judge is not persuaded that they didn’t know.
The danger of a system that would allow thinking people to censor their own news is obvious. As some “independent general” said a number of years ago when speaking about the news media not being able to show the coffins of the murdered landing in dover AFB, and I paraphrase, “If Americans could see the carnage of war the people would not want any more wars”. Truth is an abomination to the people that want to keep power. The internet is the place where thinking people can get news from all over the world, from many differing viewpoints and choose what they want to believe or not so it is imperative to the wanna be imperialists that the internet be shut down.
I tar the whole military “leadership” with the same brush. They’re all a bunch of craven career hungry jerks who are only too happy for war because that’s when they get promotions & all that folderol on their chests. Few spoke out even after retirement. (And like beam-me-up-Scottie, they were too little too late.) In fact, most after retirement were propagandists. Gee, we have such a fantastic military!
Morning,
Washington Journal this morning has Scotty as guest, Pedro is the host.
submit questions here or
email questions to journal@c-span.org
7:30-8:15 SCOTT McCLELLAN
uplink Author, “What Happened”
Locator: New York City
Topic: McClellan’s new book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.” McClellan served as
White House Press Secretary from July 15, 2003 to April 26, 2006.
8:15-8:30 Newspaper Articles/Phones
From 8:30-9:30, the Washington Journal will look back 40 years to major events from
1968 and examine how they have impacted today’s society & policies. Today, we’ll focus on nuclear
issues, including the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
8:30-9:30 FRANK GAFFNEY
R/T Center for Security Policy
President & CEO http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org
LT. GEN. ROBERT GARD (RET.)
Center for Arms Control &
Non-Proliferation – Chairman http://www.armscontrolcenter.org
Topic: Guests will discuss the impact of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which was signed in 1968, and the impact the treaty had on U.S. policy both then & now.
9:30-10:00 Newspaper Articles/Phones
7:30-8:15 SCOTT McCLELLAN
Be there or be square…
and Richard Clarke coming up next on JoeScar – let’s see if he defends Scotty…
During the weeks before the war a good friend, who I would not characterize as unconcious argued:
“The Administration has to be certain Sadaam has nukes. There is no rational argument for a pre-emptive war other than *certainty* of that fact”
The problem was that too many people abdicated their voices in the overwhelming wave of propaghanda. I include myself in this judgement.
I discussed and argued with sympathetic peers, but did not argue as strongly or loudly as I might have.
The corporate woned media made the same ‘rational’ assumption that my friend did.
I think the best explanation for what went wrong was the overwhelming assumption that “They (the Administration) cannot be that fucking stupid”
Bad assumption.
Thanks Attaturk,
the MSM is awash in hogwash
got a certain satisfaction reading McClatchy’s “Memo to Scott McClellan: Here’s what happened”
fascinating tho, the backlash on the backlash on Scotty’s book.
Heard Clarke yesterday. He’s sour grapes on Scotty because “when my book came out, no one knew what I revealed, but now everyone knows what’s in Scott’s book.” (Or words to that effect.) These guys’ egos are so out of control. I decided Clarke was a flake when I found out he was good friends with Judith Miller.
katyinmaine (I think) wanted me to tell you your email addy didn’t work??
First caller berates him for cashing in and why’d you wait so long, Scotty?
Mainstream news has been hopeless for years. You learn more by watching Entertainment Tonight, on which it’s modeled.
Scotty learned the filibuster technique from Condi. He’s going to blather for 45 minutes and take very few Qs.
Many progressives have been railing against the incompetence and even malfeasance of the corporate media for decades.
And then we witnessed the end of the fairness doctrine which was a fig leaf for the main media to hide behind while promoting their “capitalist” pro empire agenda in their coverage of events.
The end of the fairness doctrine was followed on shortly by the concentration of ownership of media “companies” in the hands of a few giant corporations with interlocking boards and directorships to industry.
Effectively a news and reporting industry morphed into a vast and propaganda apparatus of enormous power in this nation. They formed the opinions and behavior of the public in everything from their consumerism to their (lack of) understanding of the world and politics. They gave us all the catch phrases, sound bites and melted the minds of Americans to be only able to accept MTV style content.
The media is almoist 100% responsible for the apparent consensus achieved and ignorance of the people here.
This obviously needs to change, because the policies the MSM promoted has not only cost millions their lives, but is complicit in the threat to our entire planet.
There is a huge agenda to reverse what has been done to us and the world and it MUST involved the dismantling of media as a monopolistic corporate ventures with hidden and no so hidden agendas and conflicts of interests.
If the media is not brought back to it’s necessary role as a function 4th estate we will continue the slide to hell and live in a Brave New World of NewSpeak and lies where war means peace and so forth.
I wouldn’t believe anyone with a high 6 or 7 figure salary who “reads” the news and calls themselves an objective journalist. Or one who is married to an administration member or government official. This is clearly a conflict of interest.
We live in a world where too many people do not have a clue of ethics and only think about their own selfish interests, and this is nowhere more true than in “industry” and corporate operated media.
Capitalism run amoke did it.
Don’t be too tough on these guys. Once they were in the mob it was almost impossible to get out and say something without being knee-capped or worse. The big decision was joining up. After that it was all downhill.
Thank you Raven. I have just sent an email with address clarification. Thank you so much.
I decided Clarke was a flake when I found out he was good friends with Judith Miller.
Damn. I didn’t want to know that – I’ve always thought a lot of him.
And you’re right – he just trashed Scotty as bringing out old news…
You look at the source and you can tell that either everything they say is true or it’s all lies. Very simple.
R’s lie all the time. It’s part of the job description. They don’t know it, but it comes so naturally to them.
Great post, Attaturk.
I’m still puzzled over Williams’ statement of how he heard from the Pentagon so quickly about anything they didn’t like. WTF did he ever say that wasn’t licking their boots? If the drivel he and his buddies was pumping out caused them to yell at him, what were they expecting him to say? I think when (if) they have the hearings on the Pentagon propaganda program, Williams and the other anchors need to be put on the witness stand and they need to give us chapter and verse on what these phone calls covered.
Egos… it’s all about their damn egos.
Dya think?
In my head, I hear that as an homage to Fitz’s close at the Libby trial, where the tall man in the rumpled suit stood up after Wells’ emotional attempt to sum up his lack of a case. Fitz stood up, looked at the jury, and cried, “Madness. Madness! Madness!!!”
Yum.
I’d love to see some of the progressive blogosphere do a similar takedown of the MSM — not as an “I told you so” but to knock down the “no one could have anticipated . . .” nonsense that seems to be oozing out from behind several microphones.
I also read Clarke’s spy-thriller, which is a hoot, but very flakey.
I really do. I see absolutely no evidence that these people have any sense of humility. They all feel exceptional, privileged apart from the little people. Even their “service” is seen as some sort of ego trip and they always cash out on their contacts.
Jesus – Scotty’s still sticking to the talking points – his own talking points this time, but I’m hearing a lot of the same phrases, verbatim, that I heard on the Today Show and on Olbermann.
Sticking to the talking points must be a hard habit to break.
Dan Froomkin has a nice take on all of this, too, over at his perch at NiemanWatchdog. He ends with this:
Ugh. Scotty’s still like fingernails on blackboard, just like he was when he was official mouthpiece. I gotta get out of here. Outdoors is much more attractive.
The rich, pampered, priviledged, coccooned, egotistical corporate media pundits, newsfluffers and bloviators need to be held accountable for their corruption and complicity in the crimes of this administration.
Lot’s of people could see through the lies and BS for years and years. People like Chomsky, Stud Terkel, Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Normal Finkelstein to name a few more common names and plenty of progressives and people around the world who have access to a free press. The truth weas out there, they ignored it and covered it up and did worse, lied repeatedly.
Our media is so full of itself it can’t even see it is nothing but a vast spin machine a propaganda apparatus for the status quo.
What a buch of gasbags.
Scarecrow is up: McClellan On Countdown: “Where Did Things Go Wrong?”
Did anyone see Jessica Yellin (formerly of ABC) say on Anderson Cooper yesterday that corporate management (not CNN she clarified) demanded positive stories on Iraq from their reporters? She said that many stories she wrote were rejected because they didn’t have the right tone. She also suggested that she was directed to write certain kinds of stories. Seems like that should get a bit more attention as some run to catch up with where most of us were five years ago, and others try to defend the indefensible.
So ya figure he’s going to say something different every time he’s on? Seems pretty unrealistic to me.
The reason why the MSM is complicit and Moyers isn’t touching is:
MSM is the embodiment of corporatism – They market information for profit and their product is all about bottom line.
MSM leaders and shakers all have conflicts of interests. They own shares and will profit by the kind of information they “report”
MSM has interlocking directorships, all perfectly “legal” with other corporations who benefit/profit by their coverage and reporting. The are compromised.
MSM has a position of no accountability for their behavior. Broadcast media are given license to use our airwaves but no one will even consider taking these lucrative licenses away for abusing their mandate.
MSM openly participates in the revolving door antics with both government and industry and is both polluted by and influenced by the agendas of government and industry.
Yea, his training was took stick to the crib notes. And I don’t think that at this point he is going to become spontaeneous. Wish my TV received all these damn shows. But all I get right now is Late Edition on Sunday evening. And Wolf’s style is getting a bit “Aipac,” one might say.
We know enough to know the US govt has been peopled with hypocrites for some time. In the early fifties our first regime change happened in Iran. We upset a legally elected guy named Mossedegh (the spelling is wrong)and installed the Shah. Mossedegh’s failing was wanting to raise the price of Iranian oil-he believed the low price was the result of a sweetheart deal with a prior corrupt regime. The shah, our great friend, tortured and disappeared people for as long as he held power. So much for our support of liberal democracy. The Iranians hate us for many good reasons including the commercial aircraft we shot down in the first Iraq war and then bargained them down as to the value of an Iranian life. Rather than be generous in light of our substantial error, we were stingy. We have no reason to bomb them. They have several reasons to bomb us.
The US has been an empire and acted like one for more than half a century.
We maintain almost 200 military installations in 130 countries and prowl the world’s oceans with fleets of nuclear enabled warships.
We call this “protecting our strategic interests” which are never defined and never explained how we have interests outside our shores which need military force protection.
We were founded as a nation with SOME democratic ideals, but at our birth we has slavery and didn’t consider blacks entire humans until almost 100 years into our existence as a nation.
We didn’t grant suffrage rights to women until the 20th century and so half the population was disenfranchised. Some democracy!
But the founding documents and the Bill of Rights (afterthoughts) do represent an enlightened form of participatory government for the time.
Even today we have many undemocratic instutions such as a senate which is not a one person one vote body, the electoral college which is also byzantine. We wold many colonies, such as Peurto Rico and Guam where we act no better than the colonizes of the the 17 century.
It’s about time to stop the pretense about a great democracy that we have.
It’s about freedom here,. but freedom for capital and markets, not human beings. We’re just commodities to market to and exploit for our labor.
according to chalmers johnson the number is well over 700 (and that’s just the non-secret ones)
You can digg the excellent McClatchy column at http://digg.com/political_opin…..kes_Spooks
Thanks for your veiws on the great American democray. I am at the moment resideing in Italy, which is rapidly losing it’s affection for the US and it’s military bases. Nearbye a US nuclear sub base was told it must shut down and move last year. And in northern Italy another base is being picket by lot of locals, they don’t want it anymore. Likewise in anothe place I reside part time, the Philippines. THere are no more US bases, although the US military is still trying to station US troops there to fight the war on Terror. And the Phillippine Military fake terrorist attacks to extort money from the US government to fight this so called “War on Terror.”
I don’t think that our leadership gets it. They just ca’t grasp the differance in cultures. And just sell us out for the bucks
you are so right about the military bases. 700 at least around the world. But how many that we don’t know about? There aren’t supposed to be any in the Phillipines, by Philippine Law. But there is an air base near Cebu and another near Zamboanga City. If these are secret, am I now spilling the beans and bound for Guantanamo?
But I have seen US bases in the jungles of Trinidad Bolivia, and Tingo Maria, Peru. I’ll bet they aren’t on the list.
The news hacks can’t admit the dictim that war and calamity (contrived and otherwise) sell papers and bring in advertising revenues. This legacy of the Hearst newspapering philosophy is at bottom what’s behind the assholes who allow themselves to be pimped by today’s media moguls.
I think many progressives understand the need to not only “take back america” or get us back the america we had, but really great a NEW america which is true to the tag lines we had drilled into her heads:
Liberty and Justice for all.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
A right is not something that can given, but something which cannot be taken away.
It is here we must think about how to take America back. Do we vote for Obama and hope he delivers the change he promises? Do our liberties depend on one man? If not, and if we all have responsibility, what can we do? Most, facing the enormity of the problem, throw up their hands and decide we can do nothing.
We need to begin to trust each other sight unseen, but that is a huge act of faith. No fun being the only one to show up for the general strike. The internet is a powerful instrument to give power to the people, but I’m technologically challenged, so I’m not sure how it would work or if it can work. It needs discussing.