Death of a Free Press: Murdered by Karl Rove

[Pryderi]

Rove has managed to put the entire free press under his thumb by spreading so many lies that no one will trust anything the media says. Also, the media has been bashed and persecuted to the point that reporters will be fearful to publish news.

Potential whistle-blowers will never come forward for fear of being exposed as a leak and suffer retribution.

I found a few articles regarding the death:

Kids, don't fall for 'free press' hype

July 8, 2005

BY CAROL MARIN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Advertisement


Just about every week, the phone rings with an earnest, young journalism student at the other end asking what he or she needs to do to become a reporter. Some have already given it a great deal of thought. Most have not.

For a while now, I've toyed with the notion of one day writing a book, a kind of road map for would-be reporters on some of the obstacles ahead. I'm not sure what I'd call it. Maybe, Hey, Kid, So You Wanna Be A Reporter? I was forced to abandon my original title, News Reporting For Dummies, after a media-bashing friend of mine sneered that it was redundant.

Lesson No. 1: Even your friends will despise you.

Reporters have long since lost the luster of the glory days of Woodward and Bernstein and Watergate. Journalists, in the eye of the public, have gone from swashbuckling to scum-sucking. Some of our wounds are self-inflicted. The Jayson Blair affair at the New York Times and the CBS/Dan Rather case of questionable documents are just two of too many.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/marin/cst-edt-carol081.html


Bad Case for a Fight

By David Ignatius

Friday, July 8, 2005; Page A23

As a journalist, I'm angry that Judith Miller of the New York Times is in jail today for trying to protect a confidential source. But I am also angry that the press has allowed itself to be dragged into a no-win case that will weaken our ability to protect true whistle-blowers and thereby serve the public.

With the Valerie Plame leak investigation, the press has planted its flag on the least favorable ground to fight the larger battle for confidentiality. This is a case in which the sources weren't disclosing wrongdoing by others but were allegedly doing wrong themselves by blowing the cover of a CIA officer.


The journalists' position became even more awkward after special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald compelled sworn testimony from senior White House officials who were the likely leakers. If one of them had confessed, the case would be over. But what seems possible is that one or more White House officials who leaked information has denied under oath being the source. If so, this is now an investigation of perjury or obstruction of justice.

For months it has been clear that this case was likely to make bad law: appellate rulings that would erode journalists' ability to protect their sources. That's one reason why some prominent reporters -- including ones with The Post and NBC News -- let their lawyers work out arrangements that would provide Fitzgerald with information he wanted, without compromising the confidentiality agreements the reporters had made with their sources. These negotiations were delicate, involving sources' consent that reporters testify about their conversations. But they allowed both sides to preserve the essential points of principle -- and avoid the train wreck that obviously lay ahead.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070701900.html

Frameshop: The Dan Rather Effect

For the past week, the media has been obsessing over one reporter who, due to her refusal to give up one confidential source, has been sent to jail for one week. Over and over we've been hearing the same thing: "Judith miller sent to jail!" "Freedom of the press gone!" "The end of independent journalism is upon us!" "Send the kinds home from school!" "Lower the flags to half mast!"

Unfortunately, the media is stuck in the wrong story. Or rather, they have been distracted by one detail of a much, much larger story.

This larger story is so big that it worries the entire country--everyone who watches the news and reads the newspaper and listens to the radio and reads the Internet. We are all biting our nails, waiting for the media to start focusing on the big story instead of the sideshow about a reporter forced to spend one week in prison for standing up for her principles.

Here is the larger story as it might appear in a newspaper:

WHITE HOUSE BREAKS LAW TO SILENCE POLITICAL OPPONENT

by Jeffrey Feldman

Washington, July 7 - In a scandal reminiscent of the Watergate break-in that led to the resignation of President Nixon, it has come to light that a Bush White House official broke the law to silence a political opponent who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq. The incident, in which a White House official gave top secret U.S. intelligence to a reporter, took place in mid-2003 or just prior to President Bush's re-election. It has not been confirmed who committed this crime against the American people. Many signs point to special White House adviser Karl Rove, who has just been directed by his lawyers to remain silent on the matter. As this scandal unfolds, Americans have begun to ask if President Bush himself was involved. Did the President break the law? Americans wait anxiously for answers.

http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2005/07/frameshop_the_d.html

[fasttense]

1. If the press had been doing their job, that is acting as a voice

of the people to bring out the truth, then I bet every liberal and Dem would be behind them now. But because they have willingly handed their voice over to a corrupt administration, no one is left to stand up for them. Dems and liberals use to be the backbone of a free press. Most of them advocated a free and open discourse of opinions and facts. But when the media sided with corporations and willingly parroted the government propaganda, they lost the support of their liberal base. So when the power hungry neocons and religious fanatics turned on their newly castrated press, there was no one left to help in their battle. The media chose sides and picked the wrong one.

[wake.up.america]

2. America is in BIG TROUBLE

It has gotten to the point that I doubt most everything I read on the Internet, with few exceptions, present company aside.

Goebbels would be proud of Rove.

The damage will take years to repair.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. It really pisses me off

to hear them whining now about their 1st Amendment rights after they supported everything this misadministration has done since day one. Don't cry for me M$M, you are the ones who supported the Patriot Act, the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the cover-your-ass-up of Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. Now you're crying because some judge dared to put one of your own in jail for CONTEMPT of COURT, that you won't be able to kiss enough ass anymore. Give me a break.

[joemurphy]

4. Good post! n/t

[TahitiNut]

5. Media Narcissism - They Make Themselves The Story

Almost nothing has become more evident in the past several years than that 'journalism' is nearly non-existent in today's media, almost completely infested with narcissistic messenger services (picture a strip-o-gram and gorilla-gram) and stenographer-for-hire public relations hacks. When the messenger is narcissistic, it's no surprise that "attack the messenger" ad hominism becomes the prevalent discourse.

The corporate media isn't about shining a spotlight on the story, they're about shining a spotlight on themselves. It's the difference between clear window glass and stained glass windows - windows through which it's even impossible to ascertain the season, let alone the day's weather.

Rather than report on the abuse of and retaliations against those who report wrong-doing in government and business, the corporate media exploits the condition by claiming some 'privilege' for themselves and, to enhance their own elevated power, even cooperates with the same abuses and retaliations they hypocritically lament.

So embedded in their own narcissism, they find themselves incapable of "staying on message" in such fiascoes as Rather-gate - easily wallowing in the messenger-oriented snowstorm and abandoning any substantive focus on the public interest whatsoever (except insofar as it might aggrandize themselves).

It seems to be a mirror held up to the "American Experience" - it's always about us.

[Pryderi]

7. What is being taught in journalism schools today? How to suck-up to the

powerful?

Reporters today have no grit or substance. They seem to want to sidle up to power for the intoxication and to be seen as powerful by association.

Media corporations have gutted the news organizations, and there are little or no investigative reporting going on.

I just want to know what is taught in a journalism class today...how to apply make up?

[TahitiNut]

6. .

:kick: