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InvisibleAlex213
Stranger
Registered: 08/22/05
Posts: 1,839
"Complicit and gullible" US press
    #5775068 - 06/21/06 12:57 AM (17 years, 10 months ago)

Bet Bush regretted asking Helen for a question  :grin:

For almost five decades, White House reporter Helen Thomas has been covering America's leaders with a healthy dose of scepticism and an endless string of pointed questions.

Along the way she has ruffled presidential feathers and, since becoming a columnist in 2003, she has made clear her views on some of those incumbents - including George W Bush who she has described as the "worst president in all of American history".

Now, 85-year-old Thomas has focused attention on her fellow reporters, accusing them of failing in their duties in the run-up to the Iraq war. "I ask myself every day why the media have become so complacent, complicit and gullible," she writes in Watchdogs of Democracy?, a book published this week. "It all comes down to the 9/11 terrorist attacks that led to fear among reporters of being considered 'unpatriotic' or 'unAmerican'."

Thomas, who has covered every president since John F Kennedy, said she believed the press corps had recently recovered some of its spine and, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, had been asking more searching questions. But she said when it really mattered - when, in her opinion, the media could have perhaps prevented the invasion of Iraq - the press failed to do its public service.

She said: "When this war was obviously coming on, for two years we heard 'Saddam Hussein and 9/11'. Every reporter, rather than challenging it and saying [the 9/11 hijackers] were not Iraqis they were Saudis ... The press rolled over and printed it when they knew we were going to war and it could have been challenged."
She added: "Reporters have a duty to follow the truth wherever it leads them, regardless of politics. But people do worry about their jobs."

Until 2003, Thomas sat at the front of presidential press conferences, though for three years Mr Bush failed to call on her. In March, he asked her for a question and she said: "Your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war?"

The President would only say he did not accept the premise of her question.

Critics have long highlighted the failure of much of the media to thoroughly challenge the claims of the US and British governments in the run-up to the invasion. The New York Times has been one of the few to examine its own performance.

In a "mea culpa" it wrote: "We have found a number of instances of coverage that were not as rigorous as they should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims."

Other reporters have highlighted how, in the aftermath of 9/11, the media was less probing, at a time when the White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was warning all Americans "need to watch what they say". In 2002, Dan Rather, an anchor with CBS news, said: "Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1093512.ece

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Offlineictoasnrnsigwt
Weirder
Registered: 03/30/06
Posts: 136
Last seen: 15 years, 2 months
Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: Alex213]
    #5776369 - 06/21/06 12:32 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

I'm reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and in it Thompson says that reporters don't attack politicians to much because they will be known for expossing the wrongdoings of the politicians and it will be very hard for them to get another interview and they could lose their job becuase they don't have a story.

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OfflineRedstorm
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Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: Alex213]
    #5776434 - 06/21/06 12:53 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

Media outlets are a private enterprise who exist to make profits for their shareholders. They do this by portraying a very centrist message so they don't offend or put off any prospective viewers or readers. On top of this, they have to make sure not to alienate any politicians, as these politicians are their main source of information. The media and politicians have a sort of symbiotic relationship with each other and they don't want to push the other away too much.

Every so often, huge cpieces critical of the government pop up (Watergate, Haditha, etc.), but the costs versus benefits of these pieces are much higher than the various human interest pieces they can run. I don't think this will change as long as the media outlets are for-profit corporations. :shrug:

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Offlinezappaisgod
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Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
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Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: ictoasnrnsigwt]
    #5777037 - 06/21/06 04:08 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

ictoasnrnsigwt said:
I'm reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and in it Thompson says that reporters don't attack politicians to much because they will be known for expossing the wrongdoings of the politicians and it will be very hard for them to get another interview and they could lose their job becuase they don't have a story.




'72 was pre-Watergate. Everything changed then and the press became almost completely adversarial after Woodward and Bernstein, 2 unknown tyros, won the Pulitzer. Great book. Doesn't apply anymore


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InvisibleVvellum
Stranger

Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: zappaisgod]
    #5778577 - 06/21/06 10:57 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

you consider the mainstream press "adversarial" to the federal government, corporations, and other bodies of power?

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OfflineRedstorm
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Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: Vvellum]
    #5778606 - 06/21/06 11:04 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

While they still share somewhat of a edgy symbiotic relationship witht he government today, they are certainly most adversarial than the press before Watergate and the Vietnam war.

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InvisibleSilversoul
Rhizome
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Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: Redstorm]
    #5778682 - 06/21/06 11:22 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

The press is all about ratings. When they can get better ratings by supporting the government, they'll do that. When they get better ratings by being "adversarial," they'll do that. There's a constant feedback loop between the press and public opinion.


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Offlinezappaisgod
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Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
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Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: Vvellum]
    #5780503 - 06/22/06 01:29 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

bi0 said:
you consider the mainstream press "adversarial" to the federal government, corporations, and other bodies of power?




Yes. We live in a "Gotcha" media world. It is in their interest to find scandal, i.e. it sells papers and gets ratings. That's why I discredit basicly any whacko rantings about 9/11 or this or that that isn't in the mainstream press out of hand. I also discredit a lot of their own whacko rantings because I know it sells papers and gets ratings. But they are more careful. Most of their rants are couched with disclaimers and caveats. Alex Jones gets his ass kicked and nobody hears about it because he's a marginal figure, at best. Dan Rather gets caught and is forced to resign in disgrace. They have more to lose by spewing irresponsible nonsensical bullshit. If they get caught lying, or even just fucking up, there are dozens of competitors ready to eat their livers.

There is no mass corporate cabal controlling the mainstream media. No Fleet Street Bilderburg Group. Or any other Bilderburg Group. Or Illuminatti or anything like that. Get over your paranoia and get on with your life. You'll be much better off for it


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Offlinezappaisgod
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Registered: 02/11/04
Posts: 81,741
Loc: Fractallife's gym
Last seen: 7 years, 11 months
Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: Silversoul]
    #5780583 - 06/22/06 02:00 PM (17 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Silversoul said:
The press is all about ratings. When they can get better ratings by supporting the government, they'll do that. When they get better ratings by being "adversarial," they'll do that. There's a constant feedback loop between the press and public opinion.




Oh, I don't know about that. I don't think that the members of the big time press are even the least bit in touch with the "Great Unwashed." Given that most people can't find Iraq on a map or name the Secretary of State their disdain may not be entirely unwarranted. No, they are fairly well cloistered. Like academia. Journalism somewhat self selects for liberals just as business somewhat self selects for conservatives.


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InvisibleAlex213
Stranger
Registered: 08/22/05
Posts: 1,839
Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: zappaisgod]
    #5782724 - 06/23/06 01:12 AM (17 years, 10 months ago)

Yes. We live in a "Gotcha" media world. It is in their interest to find scandal

You're ignoring the point of the original article. It states quite clearly the press were cowed and utterly useless in the buildup to war in Iraq. How do you explain this if you think it is in their interest to find scandal?

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OfflineRosettaStoned
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Registered: 05/29/06
Posts: 540
Loc: North America
Last seen: 16 years, 2 months
Re: "Complicit and gullible" US press [Re: Alex213]
    #5782926 - 06/23/06 03:26 AM (17 years, 10 months ago)

It is in their interest to find scandal, didn't you watch the michael jackson trial?  :rofl:


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"Government big enough to provide you with all you need is also big enough to take everything you have." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"Without stupid, faggy potheads we wouldn't have wars." - Zappa

Edited by RosettaStoned (06/23/06 03:26 AM)

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