I had a chance to talk to a local TV journalist today

She has been nominated for more Emmys that Bush has held press briefings, and won more Emmys than Barbara Bush has children. Many other prestigous awards too. But I don't necessarily want her identified.

She is outraged that the Bush Administration has cut media access to the war, and she is beyond offended at the laziness of the press in reporting the war. She believes that Republican control of the media corporations is to blame for the producers' cooperation with this state of affairs. She does the local newscast, and they took the feed of the distant shots of the 101st bodies, and showed the cut throats of the dead soldiers by recropping.

She says that it helps to write letters to the producer asking them to include in stories not just the what and where, but the why. Why is expensive, and it is being cut out. This makes sense.

"She believes that Republican control of the media corporations is to blame for the producers' cooperation with this state of affairs."

I know the notion of "Republican control of media corporations" is a popular target, but on this count I think she's wrong. As far as I know, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the only major media company that is overtly conservative in its approach.

The real issue here is not control of media corporations by conservatives -- it's control of media corporation by cowards. The biggest fear of major media outlets is that they will lose access to key stories and will always fall behind their competitors when breaking stories about the White House.

A veiled threat to pull a media outlet's White House press pass is a weapon that has been used in the past by just about every administration in recent memory.

The main network is stealth on the issue, MSNBC.com is stealth too, but MSNBC cable is right wing as an open secret. They don't make FOX style claims to balance, but anyone would be a fool to think otherwise. But the guys in the boardrooms are thought to be right-wingers by the producers (not to mention cheap bastards, accounting for no money spent).

I do know that Tom Brokaw is a registered Democrat, but I think that network sold its soul to the White House in exchange for that exclusive one-on-one Brokaw interview of Bush back in 2001.

are both owned by General Electric - one of the worlds largest defense contractors. It's in the corporation's interest to be pro-bush or pro-republican. This is a corporatocracy. It's not that the republicans control anything, it's that the corporations control the republicans. That's the thing that needs to be realised. The corporations run this country. The corporations control every branch of government. This administration is run by the energy industry in particular and is beholden to the timber industry, the media, the pharmaceutical industry and the HMO's just for a start! This is not a country by the people and for the people. That's a distant memory if it ever existed to begin with. This is a much bigger battle.

who will listen and act.

(I bet we know who she is, anyway.)

but it was candid enough that I don't want to cause her any trouble. Yeah, it's probably obvious who it is if someone studies this site, but who needs a beacon?