Glenn Greenwald: Media's refusal to address the NYT's "military analyst" story continues

[meegbear]

I was hoping to write about the fallout from the NYT's Saturday story regarding the media's use of Pentagon-controlled "independent" military analysts, but there hasn't really been any fallout at all. Despite being accused by the NYT in a very lengthy, well-documented expose of misleadingly feeding government propaganda to their viewers and readers, virtually all media outlets continue their steadfast refusal to address or even acknowledge the story. How can "news" organizations refuse to address -- just completely ignore -- accusations which fundamentally indict their behavior as "journalists"?

As I noted on Sunday, the most striking part of the roughly-7000-word article was that several of the most guilty news outlets -- CBS, NBC and Fox -- just outright refused to answer the NYT's questions about their use of military analysts, what they knew about their analysts' dealings with the Pentagon and the defense industry, and what procedures they use (then and now) to ensure that they don't broadcast government propaganda disguised as independent analysis. Identically, other news organizations not explicitly mentioned by the NYT article but which used some of the tainted sources (such as The Washington Post) have similarly failed to address their role in disseminating this Pentagon-controlled propaganda.

Media organizations simply ignore -- collectively blackout -- any stories that expose major corruption in their news reporting, as evidenced by the fact that no major network or cable news programs have ever meaningfully examined the fundamental failures of the media in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. As Bill Moyers noted at the beginning of his truly superb documentary on the media-government collaboration concerning the invasion: "The story of how the media bought what the White House was selling has not been told in depth on television." Thus, one of the most significant political stories of this generation -- what Moyers described as "our press largely surrender(ing) its independence and skepticism to join with our Government in marching to war" -- has simply been rendered invisible by our largest media outlets. That scandal just does not exist, particularly on television.

And now we have what is by all metrics a huge new story regarding more fundamental media failures (at best), and they collectively invoke the Kremlin-like methods of Dick Cheney -- they refuse to comment, refuse to reveal even the most basic facts about what they did, and do everything possible to hide behind the wall of secrecy they maintain. They don't even feel the slightest bit obligated to say whether they have any procedures to prevent manipulation of this sort in the future. And those classic information-suppressing tactics are all being invoked by news organizations -- which claim to be devoted to disclosing, not concealing, scandals, corruption and facts about how our political institutions function.

<snip>

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

[otohara]

1. They Were Duped

by the government, leave the corporate media alone Glenn.

[stubtoe]

2. Looks like it's a textbook case of "follow the money".

All MSM is owned by right-wingers, and those owners are in bed with the current power structure in Washington (I won't call it 'government').

They scratch each other's backs and enable each other. Sweet setup, for as long as it lasts. Once the current administration is gone, expect more media witchhunts against the new Democratic president, a la Clinton.

As a nation, we need to do a serious housecleaning.

[Supersedeas]

12. this infotainment diversion is brought to you by BigPharm, Big Oil, Hummer, and Subway's $5 ft long

[Aloha Spirit]

3. NPR covered this story, that and Salon are all I've seen. Anybody else?

[mwb970]

5. KO mentioned it briefly last night, as I recall.

He mentioned McCaffery and Jacobs by name.

[jonnyra]

4. Its quite clear the media has become the enemy

Nothing will change as long as this corrupt, right wing owned media controls the message. Elections will be stolen, lies will be told, wars will be started, people will be tortured...all of this will continue unabated and in fact get worse until WE THE PEOPLE confront and TAKE DOWN the enemy. Until truth can make it into national dialog the criminal republicans will continue to destroy the nation and steal as much money as they can from the struggling masses. They know that and that is why we never see the truth...they own the media which tramits the message to the citizens. Do we really think they are going to let negative stories get out? And if the stories get out do we really beleive they wont distort and confuse the issue by flooding the media with baseless "facts" and smear campaigns against those making accusations.

We the people need to recognize the enemy of the state and it is the national media. How we take them out is through simple economics...stop buying the shit advertised on these fascist networks and radiostations. We gotta hit em in the pocket book. The nations future is at stake and until we wrestle control of the media away from the corrupt hands of the fascists we are screwed.

Somehow...some way we have got bring these motherfuckers DOWN!

[stubtoe]

7. Very true. What really needs to happen is an investigation into

the corporate media's conduct over the last 8 years (actually, the last few decades). Aiding and abetting crooks and criminals is supposed to be a crime.

[annabanana]

6. They haven't responded because they no longer even pretend

to be, you know, actual journalists or anything. It's like Colbert's difference between truth & truthiness.

[blm]

10. They KNEW what they were doing - Rather has admitted they needed Bush protected

to get the favorable rlings they expected in his second term.

Of course they are NEVER goinf to further the points made in the NYT piece. They ignore stories at will and that is how they bury them.

[Supersedeas]

8. the 'political' primaries are an excuse for a total "NEWS" blackout--look no further than

the coverage of Iraq. A nation at War with the War being a top 'political' issue and yet scant to no coverage of the daily events in Iraq. Odd?

[blm]

11. And swifts' lies were discussed for hours while ToraBora went undiscussed.

.

[OregonBlue]

9. So far no word from PBS or The News Hour, wonder why, even they are cowards.