Athenae, So Called Liberal Media

We Were Right, You Assholes

Now this is awesome. This is how it ought to be done.Have a little pride, for chrissakes:

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.

We confess that here atMcClatchy, which purchasedKnight Riddertwo years ago, we do have a dog in this fight. Our team – Joe Galloway, Clark Hoyt, Jon Landay, Renee Schoof, Warren Strobel, John Walcott, Tish Wells and many others – was, with a few exceptions, the only major news media organization that before the war consistently and aggressively challenged the White House’s case for war, and its lack of planning for post-war Iraq.

Journalists think of themselves like the Catholic Church does. They have these internal rules and structures and habits they’ve formed, and they think that, like church Canon Law, that this Journalism Law is something that everybody else has to follow, too, and that it must be obeyed. And so when the five guys at the top, of whom I think Brian Williams is unquestionably one, say something was inevitable, everybody else is expected to just go along. Good for McClatchy for telling them to fuck themselves.

And hey, Brian? The Pentagon’s on your phone telling you your story sucks? Buddy, I don’t know where you went to school but where I went, when an official asshole is on your phone bitching you out, you put that guy on speaker so everybody in the newsroom can hearwhat a fucking great job you’re doing. It’s hard getting yelled at, I get that. I don’t like it either. But lots of people in this war got DEAD, and so maybe you could have put up with some rudeness on the phone. You know, as a sacrifice. For your country.

A.

23 thoughts on “We Were Right, You Assholes”

  1. Also, for the record, Charlie, Brian and their compadres didn’t and still have NO CLUE what happened in New Orleans other than the narrative they continue to squeeze out 5 years since. Even in New Orleans, just like with the Pentagon and the wars, they didn’t give themselves the “kind of proximity” to do the real, required reporting. If the tone of that time was extraordinary, do something that should be quite ordinary for powerful journalists: STEP THE HELL UP!

  3. Check this out. The cycle of fear of repercussion repeats, but elsewhere:
    The Smithsonian Defends Censorship
    Many years from now, we will see the heads of the Smithsonian and similarly-funded federal agencies say, “The tone of that time was quite extraordinary.” Which really is newspeak for “We were afraid for our jobs, funding and continued existence, so caved to whatever demands the right-heavy government placed on us.”

  4. I’m not a journalist, I’ve never had any training in journalism, but even as a kid I remember reading or otherwise hearing about our “free press” and how important it was to a functioning democracy…unlike the godless communist Soviet journalists who parroted the ruling party line.
    Pretty much exactly what your Brian Williamses and Charlie Gibsons do today…

  5. Which really is newspeak for “We were afraid for our jobs, funding and continued existence, so caved to whatever demands the right-heavy government placed on us.”
    Which really makes me fucking crazy, because this kind of pressure is not a new thing. It has always happened. It’s just that not caving to it used to be something we all admired. Now we’re told it’s a sign of DFHism, and we should shun the nonbelievers.
    A.

  6. It has to with the people in power knowing the parameters of the consensus reality the journalists subscribe to at any given moment, then manipulating them using their own sense of what is possible, probable, conceivable, etc. You only have to control a few power points–key people–to keep the rest in line.

  7. i blame thye ivory tower. it seems to have edumicated out all the fever for truth + justice of people who just picked up the ball and worked. now it’s teevee and watching the in crowd natter on.

  8. ive personally met one “news” editor from a major media network…they are afraid for their jobs and are told they can not investigate the facts surrounding 9-11 and are intimidated by the higher-ups if they even come close to discovering sources of information that is contrary to any official version of events…Folks, these days the “TV news bandwagon” = the exact opposite of the truth and benefits only the murders and traitors who control our country.
    Peace, in-spite of the liars who’d have it otherwise.

  9. Funny how back in the 60’s Pravda was used as an example of the Soviet controlled press, only containing government propaganda. Go to the Pravda english website today and you’ll find real news that no American mainstream news source will touch. I wonder if today in Russian schools they use the NY Times and Washington Post as examples of government propaganda.

  10. pravda had nothing on this craphole we live in, this torture gulag, this nightmarish hellhole.

  11. It offends me as a US man
    that anyone would even watch TV news in US,other
    then the weather its ALL b.s.

  13. An excellent short clip that shows the illustrates (in more ways than one) the difference between MSM THUGS and Independent Media:
    “Breitbart.com’s Big Journalism editor Dana Loesch reports on William J. Kelly’s encounter with former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who is now running for Mayor of Chicago. CBS2’s Jay Levine didn’t take too kindly to Kelly’s tough questions and threatened him. ABC7’s Charlie Thomas told Kelly to “go away.” The pro-Obama biased media have been hard at-work and they haven’t stopped. As Sean Hannity says, “Journalism is dead.” See the altercation here:

  14. ˆBuddy, I don’t know where you went to school but where I went, when an official asshole is on your phone bitching you out, you put that guy on speaker so everybody in the newsroom can hear what a fucking great job you’re doing.
    Absolutely goddamn right!

  15. Don’t blame academe, at least outside the business schools — this sort of fear started once all the networks were bought up by corporations who kept firing and laying off and shutting down bureaus until everyone knew ignorance and silence was a managerial skill.
    They couldn’t kill investigative journalism outright, so they re-purposed it to gossip, which made it even more susceptible to bribery and deal-making. Then they bought up the true gossip rags, so even those couldn’t tell the truth, anymore.
    It’s still telling that the targets of the anthrax attack were Democratic members of Congress, network journalists and the National Enquirer. Nothing says STFU like state-sponsored terrorism.

  16. And nota — nice try, but Breitbart’s just one arm of the same noise machine, ‘cept it’s working for chaos instead of clarity.

  17. Wow, this is the same media that refuses to ask the current administration why it has loaded its administration to the hilt with leftist, socialist, activist czar’s performing dozens of jobs with zero authorization from Congress? And wow, the same media that questioned John McCain’s presidential eligibility because he was born on a military base to a soldier on active duty, yet refuses to question why the current President not only can’t produce a birth certificate, but has spent significant money fighting having to produce one (and I’m NOT even a “birther”). Or wow, the same media that refused to report anything on a VERY CREDIBLE claim by a Democrat campaign worker that she was sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton, a pretty widely known sex addict with a long history of sexual “come ons”. Or wow, the same media that still allows Clinton to claim he “balanced the budget” and left the economy in such splendor, when it fact it was nothing but another bubble in full collapse before he ever left office. Or wow, the same media that allows Bernanke and company to report there is almost zero inflation (when we see inflation running rampant in healthcare, energy, food, and other commodities) giving them the pretense to endlessly print new money. These people aren’t journalists, they’re just stupid people with political agendas, more interested in making a name for themselves and gaining access to social circles than in reporting the news.
    P.S. And all you Bush-haters… get a life. He was dealt a much worse hand than the current administration who wants to blame him for everything.

  18. Obama NEVER would have gotten INTO office except for the LITTLE MORON George W-rong Bush.
    EXACTLY the same way that bullies always alienate people, they thought yelling and drowning out reasonable discussion meant they were winning. What it meant was, people quit trying to rationalize with them, and simply waited for the first opportunity to vote them out. A Mountain of anger and resentment against the Bush/NEOCON jerks built up, and now Obama is President. You have only yourselves, Bush lovers, to thank for Obama’s success. Obama NEVER would have won without you.
    This DEPRESSION happened on the Bush “WATCH”. I am disgusted by the cowardice of those who wish to appropriate military terms, play DRESSUP, call themselves “decider”, strut around yelling WAR this and WAR that, then scurry like roaches when the light flips on, and blame Carter, or Hoover, or Washington for the Republican economic disaster. Bush NEVER vetoed a spending bill. MAN-UP you Bush whiners, and take some of that responsibility you always demand of others.
    The economy collapsed under Bush. There are very few solutions to correct 8 years of bad economic policy in 8 months. I don’t believe there is a salvageable economic solution. It would be like taking over as the captain of the Titanic after hitting an iceberg, and hoping to return to port. It is all about the passengers now.
    Bush tax cuts produced $3.8 Trillion out of the $13.8 Trillion debt.
    http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/obama-is-toast-davidowitz-says-us-to-face-dollar-crisis-by-2012-yftt_535652.html
    =====Try hard to grasp this– The Obama VICTORY happened on the Bush WATCH. “Captain DRESSUP” and his arrogant, bullying, “Israel First, Neocons” put Obama in office.
    Do you know what is really funny? For years INDEPENDENT people yelled alarms over the Executive Orders and “signing statements” Bush was enacting. The jerks that supported him thought they were all just wonderful. NOW all those restrictions and destructions of YOUR CIVIL RIGHTS are in the hands of your WORSE NIGHTMARE. ROTFLMAO Sweet dreams you idiots.
    In their minds, Saddam was a criminal because he used torture but Bush was not.

  19. NEOCON, another name for COWARD:
    ALL the “neo-CONS”, John Boehner, ROVE, Krauthammer, Kristol, Beck, LIEberman, Hagee, Limbaugh, ALL those big mouths with NO DD-214’s should be rounded up and sent to the war they claim they LOVE. Let them get a good taste of WAR …
    Bush, Rove, AND Cheney are now all free to PROVE they really believe in the wars they started, and just how “PATRIOTIC” they really ARE. They surrounded themselves with flags and LOUDLY proclaimed their “love” of America… Now they are free to pick up rifles and LEAD the Troops that they ordered into combat.
    I am sure those “HEROS” will be on the next plane to Afghanistan …
    Bush with his National Guard training (NG was just DRAFT DODGING in those days)
    and Cheney …
    1) FIVE DEFERMENTS to dodge SERVING the Nation during Viet Nam, too busy advancing HIS career.
    2) HIDES in a secret Bunker during and long into the night on 9/11.
    By the way ,,,, WHAT did “The WAR President” Bush ever do about the HUNDREDS of POWs left in Viet Nam?
    Bush(National Guard), Cheney (with 5 deferrments) and ALL those TROTSKYITE “neocons” completely ignored those left to rot,
    so the USA would not have to pay $3 BILLION in reparations.
    Those POW/MIA flags are a cruel joke, with their original meaning FORGOTTEN and deliberately ignored.

  20. @jr,
    “Funny how back in the 60’s Pravda was used as an example of the Soviet controlled press, only containing government propaganda. Go to the Pravda english website today and you’ll find real news that no American mainstream news source will touch. I wonder if today in Russian schools they use the NY Times and Washington Post as examples of government propaganda.”
    This is a very good point. I remember the propaganda used to scare us as little kids about the Soviet Union. It seems that our situations have reversed.

  21. Okay kiddies, I want you to seperate into two groups. This group here will be the Bush/neocon haters, and this other group will be the leftie/socialism haters. Now while you’re busy arguing and fighting with each other, I’ll be picking your pockets and looting your country.

  22. Americans have not been raised to appreciate what it is (was) all about. Wake up dick bags before there is truly nothing left but the christian zionists and the rabid rabbis telling us all that it is all about defending Israel.
    America lost the war in 1865 / the founding fathers set up the articles of confederation / states had (the) powers / for the past 150 years it has NOT been what they designed / but OK – just go to church, put you money in the jar – kill innocent muslims – tell yourself that we are in some sort of end-times – go ahead, you really are not what the founding fathers wanted this nation to be, but you would all be welcome in Israel.
    I think the history books were written by the winners – the bankers. we have been conned, the FED Govt and the unrelated FED bank is the end of us – if you are grinning and lol’g, then keep mixing the kool-aid with your other favorite beverage.
    Yes, the politicians are NOT qualified to run anything. They are lawyers, they are not economists – and Bernank is nothing if not a Keynes worshipper.

  23. Sorry but Bush never was the president to me
    Anyone who worships chimp gods is anti christ said the Iraqi, Afghan, the US dead soldier
    Al Bushomma & Satan 2012
    Nothing more too lose

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