Opinion: Journalists working for Bush administration raises ethical issues

Journalists working for Bush administration raises ethical issues

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But lately there have been developments that I personally and professionally find disturbing. Some journalists are making an unethical bed with the current administration, and it should be a concern of everyone, not just those in the media industry.

Both instances deal with the George W. Bush administration. Both involve payoffs - either monetary or otherwise - to journalists. Or at least people who consider themselves journalists.

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http://www.cheboygannews.com/articles/2005/02/21/news/opinion/opinion2.txt

but labeled as opinion, payoffs should be required posted in the article.

I think payola should be allowed. Sarcasm off.

obedience to Der Bushler.

Really. Take away the window dressing and the Orweliian Lies and you are left with a true picture of a nation, no longer free, which will only retain any semblence of it's former existance only as long as inertia keeps alive those asepcts of the Free American Society that was destroyed in late 2000.

This really gets at the point of an independent media. How can you have this happen if you have the reporters from news organizations taking payoffs to foot issues? It sure is interesting how the comparisons to past presidential issues came up in this article. The FDR stuff was done out of respect, but the JFK stuff was done out of tradition. Presidential scandals have happened all throughout history, but some need to come to the American public. When the Iran-Contra scandal broke, was that a "private matter"? What about the Gannon/Guckert story?

A private matter is something that only affects parties directly involved. A blow job from an ugly southern gal DOES NOT have the same effect as a man who made false premises to start a war.

The editorial, written by one Rich Adams, begins by contrasting the exposure of Watergate to the press' silence on the effects of FDR's polio and JFK's philandering, saying that it was a matter of exposing the private affairs of the President.

That is utter nonsense. Watergate was not an invasion of Mr. Nixon's privacy. It was an assault on the American system of free elections. A group of White House operatives, accountable to no one but those inside the White House, was gathering intelligence against the political opposition as if it were a crime to oppose Nixon. The government should be so aggressive when pursuing the Mafia.

Otherwise, Mr. Adams has it right that there is something unethical in the way the White House has paid some in the press to promote administration programs and used helped an unqualified reporter gain access to the press room in order to ask softball questions barbed with partisan invective. The editorial could, but does not, mention the use of the Karen Ryan Group, a public relations firm, to create and distribute a fake news reports with an administration slant on the Medicare prescription drug benefit; there are over fifty known incidents of the propaganda piece being broadcast.

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in this country.

He finds the Gannon/Guckert incident "disturbing." It raises "ethical issues."

This kind of moderate tone can in no way compete with the screamers and hate mongers of the right.

"George W. Bush is a proven liar and he manipulates the media to spread his lies: these lies steal bread from the poor, get our soldiers killed, and take jobs away from Americans and send them to India and Indonesia."

There. That would be a start . . .