Our Stubborn, Defiant Media on Iraq




For three years, President Bush has been portrayed as stubborn on Iraq, so defiant that it’s disturbing, perhaps even a sign of delusional certitude. There’s a mirror image at play: those doing the portraying, i.e., the media have been every bit as stubborn when it comes to their defiant insistence that everything that happens in Iraq, no matter how positive, is another peg for bad news coverage.


We acknowledge that the daily drumbeat of death pounded by the media is based on facts. That does not mean that all death is bad. In war, it is a tragedy to learn that your countrymen have fallen. It is cause for celebration when the enemy dies. But for the American news media, all news is bad news if the theater is Iraq.


When American forces killed Saddam’s evil sons Uday and Qusay in July of 2003, the press reported the news as a P.R. disaster. NBC’s Richard Engel said the display of their bodies was “offensive to Muslim sensibilities.” ABC’s Terry Moran suggested the U.S. violated the Geneva Conventions. Eleanor Clift said we lost a “major opportunity” for Saddam’s boys to tell us where the WMD were hidden.




A new study of cable-news coverage by the Media Research Center demonstrated the same pattern when American bombs took out terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last July. CNN counter-programmed that achievement by interviewing a leftist journalist who defiantly complained, "There’s no good news in Iraq. There’s no corner that’s been turned, there’s no milestone." Over on MSNBC, reporters took time away from covering the breaking news of Zarqawi’s death to feature four stories profiling U.S. military deserters, the “new face of the anti-war movement.”


This was just part of a routine. MRC analysts reviewed two months of Iraq coverage during the midday hours on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News in mid-2006, and the numbers speak volumes. Fully three-fifths (60 percent) of all CNN stories on the war emphasized pessimism about progress in Iraq, compared to just 10 percent that reported on achievements or victories. MSNBC’s tilt was similar, with four times more bad news stories (48 percent) than reports stressing good news (12 percent). Fox News, so often cartooned as the rosy-news channel, had a ratio of 30 percent negative stories to 20 percent positive.


Now add the execution of Saddam Hussein to the mix. It is amazing that the American – the American! – media couldn’t stand the thought that this in any way could be interpreted as a brief occasion for good news. This tyrant, whose brutal regime of torture and murder left hundreds of thousands dead and a nation destroyed, now rots in Hell, thanks to us. Us. As in the United States – us. Yet there was no moment of brief satisfaction on TV. CBS broke in to show former Clinton official Richard Holbrooke reassuring Katie Couric that this meant nothing for President Bush’s Iraq policy.


Some outlets protested the “rush” to execution, most notably the anti-American editorial pages of The New York Times. Rushed? Putting a bullet in his head when we found him in the spider hole at the end of 2003 would be a “rushed” job. Instead, he sat in jail eating Doritos for three years, making a mockery out of his trials for mass murder, when everyone but Ramsey Clark knew he was guilty as sin. Whether the pace of justice for Saddam had been swift, or whether it was glacial, we knew the United States would be trashed by its homegrown media no matter which way events turned.


CNN even had the audacity to worry about the brutality of hanging Saddam. Reporter Randi Kaye wondered “Will Saddam suffer in death?” The villain was now the victim. But the real turning point for the negative nabobs was the cell-phone video of Saddam hanging, and toadies of Shi’ite militant leader Moqtada al-Sadr chanting his name in the aftermath. To be sure, the spectacle was disgusting, but should it overshadow so completely the justice that was done?


In Newsweek, Christopher Dickey insisted “the tyrant’s end looked more like the result of a sectarian show trial.” Show trial? What next – Saddam was framed? NBC’s Richard Engel declared it was yet another “major public relations blow” for America. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews dragged out the old line that Bush was clueless about how disastrous this video was, just like he was clueless about footage of Hurricane Katrina. The New York Times even argued the video showed Saddam took his punishment with “unflinching dignity and courage.” What a guy, that Saddam.


Reporters act amazed that Bush hasn’t waved a white flag and surrendered to their wishes. He shouldn’t. He should respond with a political broadside of his own, reminding them that when America’s enemies are brought to justice, Americans should, and will, rejoice.

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Need I remind you that the Media basically owned by 6 companies? All but five of them are conserivative interest?
MediaChannel.org -- Media Ownership 2001

MediaChannel.org - A Global Network of More Than 1,000 Media Issues Groups

MediaChannel.org - OWNERSHIP | Report

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The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn

also

Take Back The Media! Who Owns The Media?

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The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn

Ownership is not in question. Content and ownership are two different things.
Content is what is being discussed here.
Gigantic red herring, again dodging discussion of the product!
How is ownership relevant?

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If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~

They can only put on content that the ownership aproves of.

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The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn

Sorry, but that is silly and incorrect. IMHO

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If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~

Dank ...

Reporters are biased. Media ownership only cares about profit.

Vi

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Fox gets talking points from the White House. Tony Snow, an ex FOX newsman Now fronts for the Bush Regime, what a smooth liar he is!


Fox follows Bush's lead, renames domestic spying program as "terrorist surveillance program"

Summary: Fox News has adopted the Bush administration's terminology for its warrantless domestic spying program, calling it the "terrorist surveillance program."

Not long after the Bush administration adopted new rhetoric to describe its warrantless domestic surveillance program, Fox News reporters and anchors began using the White House's terminology, referring to it as a "terrorist surveillance program." Beginning on January 25 -- during a week that saw the administration go on the offensive to promote its practice of spying on U.S. residents without obtaining warrants -- Fox News began slipping the term, without qualification, into its news reports and commentary. For example, reporter Harris Faulkner, on the January 25 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, used the term during a news brief when she noted that " '[s]trange and farfetched' ... is what New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling President Bush's defense of his terror surveillance program."
During what many in the media have described as the White House's weeklong "blitz" to foster support for the wiretapping program, on the January 24 edition of the Fox News morning show, Fox & Friends, co-hosts E.D. Hill and Steven Doocy used the term "terrorist surveillance program" while discussing the president's January 23 Kansas State University speech in which he began using the term publicly. Hill and Doocy concurred that the White House's terminology "sounds better" and "is more accurate" -- presumably than other descriptions of the program, such as "domestic spy program," "warrantless wiretapping" and "NSA domestic surveillance program." The following day on Fox & Friends First, Doocy and co-host Brian Kilmeade announced their intention to refer to the program as "the terrorist surveillance program."
On January 22, the White House Press press office released a backgrounder -- called "Setting the Record Straight" -- on the NSA spy program, in which the term "terrorist surveillance program" appeared 10 times in reference to the NSA's controversial practice, authorized by the White House, of the warrantless surveillance of people in the United States, including U.S. citizens. The term "terrorist surveillance program" appears to have originated with the right-wing news website NewsMax.com on December 22; operators of right-wing weblogs began to pick up the term on January 20, according to a timeline at the Think Progress blog.
As Media Matters for America has noted, Fox also followed the White House's lead in replacing the terms "suicide bomber" and "suicide bombing" with "homicide bomber" and "homicide bombing" to describe attackers who kill themselves and others with explosives. On April 12, 2002, then-White House press secretary Ari Fleisher adopted the term, and Fox News immediately followed suit in its reporting. According to an April 13, 2002, Associated Press report, "Dennis Murray, executive producer of [Fox News'] daytime programming, said executives there had heard the phrase ["homicide bombing"] being used by administration officials in recent days and thought it was a good idea." In a February 23, 2005, item, Media Matters documented Fox's doctoring of AP articles featured on the Fox News website concerning terrorist attacks in the Middle East to conform to Bush administration terminology -- even altering a quote from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) to fit the White House jargon.
Initially, when using the phrase, "terrorist surveillance program", Fox News reporters and anchors noted that it was the term promoted by the Bush administration. For example, on January 23 broadcast of Your World with Neil Cavuto news update anchor Uma Pemmaraju highlighted the switch:

PEMMARAJU: President Bush on the offensive against critics of domestic wiretapping in the war on terror. The president, speaking at Kansas State University, relabeled his effort the "terrorist surveillance program." He says it was within the law to eavesdrop on people communicating with Al Qaeda associates outside the U.S. after 9-11.

But beginning January 25, use of the phrase began to appear in Fox News reports without any indication that the White House has promoted it.
From Faulkner's news brief during the January 25 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

FAULKNER: "Strange and far-fetched," that's what New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling President Bush's defense of his terror surveillance program. For example, President Bush has said Congress gave him the authority as part of a terror fight resolution passed after 9-11. Senator Clinton says she doesn't buy that argument, calling it "a stretch."

From the January 25 broadcast of Fox & Friends First:

KILMEADE: Let's call it the terrorist surveillance program. That would be a lot easier. And right now, if you're--
DOOCY: And more accurate.
KILMEADE: Yeah, more accurate too. If you're for the NSA wiretapping without going to the FISA court, I guess warrantless, then most likely you're Republican. If you are against it, you most likely are a Democrat. Here is what the president is going to be focusing on: the independents.

As Media Matters has previously documented, numerous Republicans and conservatives have expressed concern over the legality of the NSA warrantless spy program.
From the January 24 broadcast of Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends:

DOOCY: I wouldn't be surprised if George W. Bush is looking for a house in Manhattan, Kansas, because the audience yesterday at the Alf Landon Lecture Series at Kansas State University gave him a warm reception. He was talking at great length about the terrorist surveillance program -- that's now how it is being referred to by the White House -- and as we heard the president say at the top of this program just four minutes ago --
HILL: It sounds better, doesn't it? It's more accurate.
DOOCY: It is more accurate, and it tells you what it's about. And he made a good point: He said, "If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?"

Maybe these are talking points

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

George Stephanopoulos at ABC worked for Clinton, Tim Russert at NBC worked for Moynihan. And there are several other examples of cross pollination.
I am only aware of one major news outlet (TV) that leans a little to the right.---FOX.
Left leaning....NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, MSNBC.(TV)....print media....NYTimes, LATimes, Wash Post, Time, Newsweek...etc

Right leaning print media....WSJ, Wash Times.
Talk radio is the only media outlet in which the right dominates.
One of the reasons talk radio has become such a juggernaut of ratings is because most Americans have been aware of the bias inherent in the "MSM".
They provide a healthy alternative.
Has FOX News promulgated right wing fantasies as Dan Rather has gleefully
attempted for the far left at “neutral” CBS?


Med, could you mention even one "lie" Tony Snow has originated?

__________________
If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.
~ Frank Zappa ~

Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.
~George Bernard Shaw~

"Med, could you mention even one "lie" Tony Snow has originated?"

And another pebble is dropped into the bottomless well. *lol*

Vi

__________________
Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.