Anyone notice..."the media" complicity getting mentioned

Kind of odd. A few times on MTP this morning, and on Matthews show afterwards. Casually mentioned, of course, but mentioned nontheless. "The media didn't ask questions," "the media didn't do their homework."

A little self-deprication is good for the soul, maybe. Maybe things really are turning. But then, there's still Candy Crawly.

"Tell the People the Truth and the Country is Safe."

Until the media recognizes that it was also asleep at the wheel for the last ten years we can't begin to rectify the mistakes of the past. The integrity of our democracy relies on their objective reporting. I hope to hear more of this kind of introspective confessions from media heavy weights -- Candy Crowley excepted.

admin, as they were during the Clinton admin.

Don't get me wrong - oughta be watchdogs all the time; but for some reason the dogs go to sleep during repug admins and get their act together in time for dem admins.

between far rightwing and near rightwing.

as per the expectations of their bosses. It is only now that events have taken a turn such that their blatant toadyism and brown-nosing to power and authority is becoming plain for all to see, that they suddenly develop a conscience. They can all go fly in hell.

It is not just commercials that manipulate us. On television news as well, image and sound are as carefully selected and edited to influence human thought and behavior as in any commercial. The news anchors and reporters themselves are chosen for their physical attractiveness--a factor which, as numerous psychological studies have shown, contributes to our perception of a person's trustworthiness. Under these conditions, then, the viewer easily forgets--if, indeed, the viewer ever knew in the first place--that the worldview presented on the evening news is a contrivance of the network owners--owners such as General Electric (NBC) and Westinghouse (CBS), both major defense contractors. By molding our perception of the world, they mold our opinions. This distortion of reality is determined as much by what is left out of the evening news as what is included--as a glance at Project Censored's yearly list of top 25 censored news stories will reveal. If it's not on television, it never happened. Out of sight, out of mind.

Under the guise of journalistic objectivity, news programs subtly play on our emotions--chiefly fear. Network news divisions, for instance, frequently congratulate themselves on the great service they provide humanity by bringing such spectacles as the September 11 terror attacks into our living rooms. We have heard this falsehood so often, we have come to accept it as self-evident truth. However, the motivation for live coverage of traumatic news events is not altruistic, but rather to be found in the central focus of Cantril's War of the Worlds research--the manipulation of the public through fear.

There is another way in which we are manipulated by television news. Human beings are prone to model the behaviors they see around them, and avoid those which might invite ridicule or censure, and in the hypnotic state induced by television, this effect is particularly pronounced. For instance, a lift of the eyebrow from Peter Jennings tells us precisely what he is thinking--and by extension what we should think. In this way, opinions not sanctioned by the corporate media can be made to seem disreputable, while sanctioned opinions are made to seem the very essence of civilized thought. And should your thinking stray into unsanctioned territory despite the trusted anchor's example, a poll can be produced which shows that most persons do not think that way--and you don't want to be different do you? Thus, the mental wanderer is brought back into the fold.

http://www.mackwhite.com/tv.html

I passed this on to all my friends so they will think about how they think.

I even got my history professor mother (who is source vigilant) to admit that she doesn't even look at many topics because they've been tainted as CONSPIRACY THEORY.

The effects of repeating fearful messages in mass media has been studied and deployed for decades.

It's not something that Fox news invented yesterday.

Also, this month's issue of Harper's Magazine has an article by Bruno Latour called 'The Last Critique' which agonized over the problem that skepticism is being used, not to create good science, but to disprove it. Such as the White House claiming global warming, pollution, and animal extinctions aren't really happening or harmful.

>snip<

"Perhaps the danger no longer stems from an excessive confidence in ideological arguments posturing as matters of fact-which we have learned to combat so efficiently-but from an excessive DISTRUST of good matters of fact disguised as bad ideological biases..."

only in the context that we were all to blame for the failure....

also, did you know that the PDB's title has been out there since May of 2002?

it was in the Washington Post, along with another article that was a very weird deja vu preview of the whole condi/PDB brouhaha

and the media IGNORED the whole thing, apparently, as it was not tossed into that vast left wing echo chamber, for some reason

Kurtz mentioned it today on his sorry excuse for a show, as did C. Boydnen Gray, with the human fridge, while they were drowning out John Dean

as part of the reason the secrecy in the administration is so bad.

factor. He said that they were like a bunch of six year
olds playing soccer, the ball goes up and they all run
to the same place in the field in a big bunch. Perfect.

and she did a great expose of the media complicity in today's situation. She even said NPR has sold out to the corporate interests.

Did anyone notice this? I saw it on CSPAN and it was funny as hell! Something how nature works..

When he was asked about the August 2001 PDB and whether the Bush administration deserved the criticism that they've been receiving concerning their lack of action, McCain started spreading the blame around. Yeah, the media deserves blame for going from government watchdogs to government lapdogs, but they got the PDB this weekend. They are not the President of the United States!!!

The media most definitely deserves blame, but when the finger pointing is coming from people who are still in denial about their own complicity, it just makes me shake me head in disgust.

Please tell me that people are over the whole McCain as VP thing. I am allergic to him.

Even the syntax checker on this board won't let 'American journalism' co-exist. In the same sentence with 'integrity'.

I watched PBS NewsHour on Friday night and there was David Brooks. Looking so sheepish and cloying as he kept re-iterating how the media had failed to take terrorism seriously. Lehrer, who nods in utter deference at every right-wing claim no matter how farcical, and smirks at any Democratic defense, was right on cue, 'Yuh, yuh, un-huh, uh-huh.' Oh yes, the media was negligent. Oh yes.

Why?

Because it has become obvious now, too obvious to disavow, deflect or denigrate the stunningly blatant negligence of the Bush administration's dismissal of terrorist threats leading up to 9/11.

So now, we are all to blame. The Bush administration wasn't any more at fault than the media, or even - get this - the American people, for not taking terrorism seriously.

This is your craven, disgraced American media trying to take some of the heat off of Bush. Please don't ever ascribe a noble motive to American journalism until you think it through, at which point you will find anything but.

There was no other voice or opinion on the topic.

Just one person from the fekkin' Heritage Foundation!