From Schoenfeld's disgraceful comments to some real news.... Great, fantastically great job Ted! (There was a thread here recently that said Ted was going to do this.)
Schoenfeld's comments:
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/05/24/reese_schonfeld_cofounder_of_cnn_says_the_public_does_not_have_a_right_to_know.phpMay 24, 2005Reese Schonfeld, Co-founder of CNN, Says "The Public Does Not Have a Right to Know"
Last week on May 16th, during an appearance on The Big Story with John Gibson, CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld made some very scary statements about the roles of the media and the Pentagon in time of war. The two men were discussing the Newsweek Koran story. Here's my transcript of part of that interview:
GIBSON: You're saying that editors should, and in fact, do make calculations about whether people are going to live or die because of the revelations they're about to make and that this was one in which editors should have foreseen just what happened.
SCHONFELD: Sure. What, what difference ... Absolutely. Everyone knows or should know, if they know anything about the Arab world or the Muslim world, how holy the bible is - their Koran - is to them and how inflammatory a statement that we had desecrated it, flushed it down the toilet or whatever would be in that world and someone should have said: Well, what real difference does it make if we report that or don't report that. And should never have reported it. But if you were even gonna consider reporting it, well, I don't, I don't even - I wouldn't even consider reporting it. I would have sat there in the chair and said "No, this doesn't go in the story." Period.
GIBSON: OK, but would you have - by that same reasoning would you have not reported Abu Ghraib if somebody had brought you those pictures.
SCHONFELD: Abu Ghraib is the greatest foul up of all time. Those pictures were on the internet. The problem is not that we were - we - I only wish the Pentagon could have been able to deny that story, to be able to li - that's the right of the Pentagon to lie, when it is in the country's best interest to lie, you do lie. And when I made that statement in my book, an undersecretary - well - at Defense told me I don't have it quite right, the - uh - Rumsfeld, the Secretary can never lie but any, anybody under him can, that you have to do it when it's in the public, in the government interest.
COMMENT
From Newseum on Nazi Censorship:
"The state must not ... let itself be confused by the drivel about so-called freedom of the press .. it must make sure of this instrument of popular education and place it in the service of the state." - Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf
Press freedom begins to disappear in Germany in 1932, the year before Adolf Hitler takes power. By 1933, the Nazis decree the virtual end of a free press. The government turns editors and journalists into servants of the state. Bureaucrats decide what may be published. Publishers can't hire or fire journalists. Only the government can.
My letter to the Washington Post:
I am outraged at Reese Schonfeld, Co-founder of CNN, who said on National TV that the roles of the media and the Pentagon in time of war is to lie. How original for a Democratic Nation to emulate a senseless dictatorship.
The Washington Post, more than many mainstream media outlets has been reporting real news. I'm sure you understand how CNN slaps the Fourth Estate in the face by advocating lying for the government.
Press responsibility in wartime is to not reveal sensitive information about troop movements and such. If our government would have listened to the people when we SCREAMED not to appoint Gonzales because of the Torture Memo and what it did to our reputation as a nation, we might have been able to repair some of the damage.
Those who seeks to continue murder and torture in the name of WE the PEOPLE, had better start packing their bags for 2006 and 2008 right now.
In this country we respect Truth and know our responsibility to freedom comes with a price. It isn't just the soldiers who have laid down their life blood for Democracy in Iraq. Since the war began over 40 reporters have died in the line of duty in Iraq and more than a dozen media assistants were killed as well. Is THIS is the thanks THEY get for THEIR sacrifice? Shame on CNN and their lack of humanity, much less their unpatriotic attitude.
Lying for the government is not a national VALUE. A puppet press is useless to the causes of Freedom and Justice. Real journalists know what the Nieman Reports are.
Newsweek reported old news. Three year old news. What made it such a travesty of justice was that it had been suppressed that long. Newsweek doesn’t need to retract 17 deaths; their blood is on the hands of the US Government who allowed the desecration.
The American People have a right to know what is being done in OUR NAME, here and around the world. It is OUR JOB to hold our leaders accountable and the only way we can do that is if the press has our back.
Do you?
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