Glenn Greenwald: The full-scale collapse: From Murrow to Blitzer

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/news/media_criticism/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010/03/04/blitzer

Thursday, Mar 4, 2010 18:05 EST
The full-scale collapse: From Murrow to Blitzer
Glenn Greenwald


When discussing the McCarthyite DOJ witch hunt spawned by Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol, I wrote yesterday: now that "we have real, live, contemporary McCarthyites in our midst -- Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol -- launching a repulsive smear campaign, we'll see what the reaction is and how they're treated by our political and media elites." On Twitter yesterday, I wrote: "How media figures treat Liz Cheney after her vile McCarthyite smear campaign will say a lot about their character."

CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke volumes today about himself and his "news network." First, on Twitter earlier today, he excitedly promoted his upcoming story about what he called the "intense debate about Obama Justice Dept bringing in lawyers who previously represented Gitmo detainees." On March, 9, 1954, Edward R. Murrow famously devoted his entire broadcast to vehemently condemning Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts, declaring: "This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent." By contrast, Wolf Blitzer -- receipient of an Edward R. Murrow award -- sees such smear campaigns as nothing more than an "intense debate" to neutrally explore and excitingly promote.

snip//

The story itself began when Blitzer posed this question: "Should there be a loyalty test over at the Justice Department?" He then introduced CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve, who -- echoing Liz Cheney -- introduced her segment by asking about the Obama DOJ: "Should it really be called the Department of Jihad"?

Meserve's segment then included, without any judgment, various opinions on these questions, with "some" saying that lawyers shouldn't be judged by the clients they represent while "others" explained that these lawyers' presence in the Justice Department presents a serious national security issue. None of the facts compiled earlier today by ABC News' Jake Tapper -- such as the fact that the Bush DOJ also hired lawyers who had represented Guantanamo detainees, just as Rudy Giuliani's firm had, without any objections from the Right -- made it into CNN's story, as I knew would happen.

Following Meserve's breezily neutral, "each-side-says" report, Blitzer hosted a "debate," featuring right-wing lawyer Victoria Toensig defending the Cheney/Kristol crusade, and some criminal defense lawyer meekly and lamely objecting to some (though not all) of Toensig's arguments. Blitzer passively let Toensig ramble uninterrupted and dominate the exchange, asking not a single challenging question. The entire time as Meserve's story itself was being broadcast and the "debate" took place, this was the logo CNN had on screen: "DEVELOPING STORY - ARE JUSTICE DEPT. LAWYERS DISLOYAL?" The two segments, from start to finish, were constructed based on the exact McCarthyite narrative Cheney and Kristol puked up, and although Blitzer did note that even some Bush officials found the ad to have gone "too far," the entire 30 minutes of broadcast time -- both when the story was repeatedly previewed and when it finally appeared -- continuously reinforced the smears with both graphics and Blitzer's words.

As Atrios put it: "right wing lunatics can still push anything into the puke funnel." They can not only push it into the puke funnel, but ensure it goes largely unchallenged, even bolstered by mindless media techniques. Edward R. Murrow led the media attack on the McCarthyism of the 1950s. Wolf Blitzer plays mindless, amiable, neutral, amplifying host to identical smear campaigns of today. That collapse says all one needs to know about much of modern establishment political journalism in the United States.

[OregonBlue]

1. Is it time for a class action law suit. They are using our airwaves, shouldn't they be forced to at

least tell the truth. There must be some way for the people of the United States to go after all of these news presenters who obviscate and lie and are never held accountable. Congress obviously won't do anything about it but someone has too.

[babylonsister]

3. Unfortunately, lying is now legal...

http://www.philly2philly.com/politics_community/politics_community_articles/2009/6/29/4854/fox_news_wins_lawsuit_misinform_public


Fox News Wins Lawsuit To Misinform Public – Seriously
By Randy LoBasso at 1:28 pm on Monday June 29, 2009


Coincidentally, all mainstream news organizations missed a piece of information that basically changed journalism as we knew it.

Fark.com had to bring this one to our attention. On Friday, they linked to the blog page of CeaseSPIN.org, a website “dedicated to uniting voices in support of a return to more objective, truthful, fair, balanced, relevant and representative news reporting.”

The CeaseSPIN headline gets right to the point: “Fox News gets okay to misinform public, court ruling.”

Here’s the rundown: On August 18, 2000, journalist Jane Akre won $425,000 in a court ruling where she charged she was pressured by Fox News management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information.

The real information: she found out cows in Florida were being injected with RBGH, a drug designed to make cows produce milk – and, according to FDA-redacted studies, unintentionally designed to make human beings produce cancer.

Fox lawyers, under pressure by the Monsanto Corporation (who produced RBGH), rewrote her report over 80 times to make it compatible with the company’s requests. She and her husband, journalist Steve Wilson, refused to air the edited segment.

In February 2003, Fox appealed the decision and an appellate court and had it overturned. Fox lawyers argued it was their first amendment right to report false information. In a six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals decided the FCC’s position against news distortion is only a “policy,” not a “law, rule, or regulation.”

So, Fox and the other gladiatorical cable news channels were given the okay to legally lie right around the time of the Iraq War’s birth – when media lies coincidentally hit a peak in both frequency and severity.

more...

[blm]

5. A travesty for justice. A tragedy for democracy. A victory for fascists 'catapulting the propaganda'

Brought to you by BushInc.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. babs, my love, you err, slightly,

in that you call what they do "reporting."

It is hardly that these days.

According to my English Oxford Dictionary, reporting used to involve:

Bring back or give an account of (an event, circumstance, etc.) (to a person); convey (a message), repeat (something heard); relate (that); in pass., be stated (to be). LME. ▸ †b Describe (a person). E–M17. ▸ c Prepare a written account of (a meeting, event, etc.), esp. for publication in a newspaper, official journal, etc.; cover (an event) as a reporter. E17. ▸ d Say factually. E20.

That last bit clearly is no longer the case.

[eShirl]

9. what airwaves? CNN is a cable network

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. what of the sat feeds for CNN?

aren't all those little digitals little more than packets of self contained microscopic waves?

[WeDidIt]

2. I'm shocked

Greenwald actually gets one right.

Wonders never cease.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. You now have something to shoot for...

[inna]

17. When did Greenwald get anything wrong?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. "establishment political journalism?"

Let me chew on that one for a bit.

Hm. In terms of corporate funding, length of existence, and reflexive pro-military, pro-corporate, pro-Republican bias and spin, yes. Today's profession lacks objectivity, research, depth of thought, analysis, and professionalism.

I think we can dig just a tad and find where today's shallow, biased, and skewed reporting began. Surprisingly, It started with a news program that still delivers a punch, especially when you compare it to the competition.

60 Minutes

Recall the "Jane, you ignorant slut" SNL portrayal of 60 Minutes? That was based on Point/Counterpoint, where to people took diametrically opposed positions on a single issue, and became the first example of how a balanced report on an issue required two nuts, one from each side of the issue. It became an epidemic. Soon, whenever there was hot issue, news organizations scrambled all over each other to find one voice on one side of an issue, and another for "the other side." The problem was that most issues do not lend themselves to a Yes/No, Right/Wrong, Up/Down, Left/Right analysis or discussion. So, the newsies simplified, got even lazier, and pretended that just putting up two talking heads spinning their own agenda constituted real reporting. Shallowness became the norm, not the rare exception. The dumbing down of news was well on its way to becoming the deliberate approach for all stories.

The worst of this excessively shallow reporting became infamous when Tucker Carlson and his bowtie were taken down and pinned by a middleweight WWE wrestler named Jon Stewart. Unfortunately, the shallowness and mindlessness that infected all news stations and programs became incurable. Instead of two pathetic talking heads, news programs began to use only one (at half the cost!). One of the unbreakable rules was that you never, ever question your expert or his/her competence or knowledge.

A prime example of how this step badly affected America was the IraqNam invasion and occupation. Every news station had its own retired "military expert." It wasn't until last year that we saw proof of what I always suspected. These "experts" were military plants. They were taught what to say and how to say it, they were spoon fed their lines by the Pentagon's PR office. They propagandized the war for Americans, fed us bullshit, and kept the truth out of the news. No news entity would dare point out the similarity (if they all say it, it must be true) of statements or "facts", nor would they question the statements made, even when they were patently false.

A few intrepid reporters tried to do their jobs professionally, especially in IraqNam. They were either shut up, shot "by accident," or forced to leave their embed positions. News became propaganda, pure and simple.

To keep the masses amused, confused, and to keep their attention away from the real issues, we saw another cheap way to create "modern news." The besotted bimbette story. Missing brides to be, missing drunken spoiled rich girls looking for a drug-aided gang bang, and worse. Even America's yute was involved. How many here recall the issues surrounding Jon Benet Ramsey? Sad, isn't it? HOW IS THAT NEWS, when Blackwater murdered and raped people in Iraq, stole OUR weapons for their own use or for profitable resale, AND Blackwater still gets a new 2 billion dollar contract from the Obama administration?

Blitzer is merely the latest in a line of idiots who read lines on screen. He is as much a journalist as I am a world class ballerina (The image of me in a tutu would be sufficient for most of you to cough up your breakfasts)

I don't know how we can fix it. I don't know if it can be fixed.

[malaise]

6. Fuck Blitzer

Go Rachel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4HycgqKc2I

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. and I thought I had a stomach turning image in my post.

[DeSwiss]

16. +1 / K&R

[peekaloo]

11. Every time I try to read this story my brain shuts down at this point:

"By contrast, Wolf Blitzer -- "receipient" of an Edward R. Murrow award....." *zap* there it goes, or doesn't go, again.

[Powerdot16]

12. Good post

Journalism is now officially Newspeak.

[90-percent]

13. Symptomatic

Conservatives have been chipping away with deregulation for at least the last thirty years. So all the laws put in place to insure an informed populous that has good information to make political decisions has been obliterated.

As posted above, it is now perfectly acceptable to knowingly lie in news broadcasts!

So our main stream media is yet another Institution that has betrayed it's original intent to serve the public good.

I say it here a lot:

ALL OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE NOW RUN BY SOCIOPATHS!

The people in charge of Goldman Sachs and all the other too big to fail bailed out institutions have to be full blown sociopaths incapable of any form of human empathy!

All the $80,000 a day insurance exec's have got to be spiritually broken to do what they do day after day.

ALL THE UMPIRES OUR ENTIRE SOCIETY DEPENDS ON have all been bought and paid for a long time ago!

And the pace of corporate takeover of our institutions is accelerating. If they don't do something quick, the 2010 Elections may be the last elections we ever have! Thank you Supreme Corporation!

-90% jimmy

[Papa Boule]

15. The adults have left the building and are no longer with us

The country's political spectrum has been pushed to the right. Even reasonable leftists are reviled and marginalized. There won't be an Edward R Murrow this time. And when the economy teeters again and collapses, there won't be another FDR.

Demagogues will seize the moment and the extreme right will prevail. Lies will continue to go unchallenged, supported by this new "neutral" (or neutered) media.

It's going to get ugly. And the media will bear its share of the blame for pretending that their journalistic ethics compelled them to do nothing to challenge lies and letting it all happen.