Jounalist explains the media and the elections - HOT!

Media and the Election
by Jeff Cohen
When we look at the media's role in the 2004 election, we make a mistake to focus on election coverage per se. The basis for Bush's victory was in place way before 2004. At the end of last year, a huge study done by the University of Maryland's PIPA, the Program on International Policy Attitudes, found that most of those who got their news from the commercial TV networks held at least 1 of 3 fundamental "misperceptions" about the war in Iraq (and some held 2 or 3 of them):

that Iraq had been directly linked to 9/11

that WMDs had been found in Iraq

that world opinion supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Viewers of Fox News, where I worked for years, were the most misled. But strong majorities of CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN viewers were also confused on at least one of these points. Among those informed on all 3 questions, only 23 percent supported Bush's war.

How can you have a meaningful election in a country where, according to polls, half or more of the American people don't know who attacked us on 9/11? They think Saddam Hussein was involved.

To help Bush mislead Americans, Fox News Channel required that the banner "War on Terror" run when Iraq was discussed.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1122-31.htm

Our press is no longer free because they are controlled by corporations.

"Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived;
but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them
for light." --Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart. 1799.

"The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood."
--Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807.

Where is Al Gore's network?

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