Lapdogs: How the Press rolled Over for Bush

Raw Story:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Excerpt_0512.html

Excerpt: Book suggests Libby's relationship with reporters spared him Plame coverage

Eric Boehlert
Published: Friday May 12, 2006

In the new book, Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush, author Eric Boehlert claims that a good relationship with the press may have spared former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby unflattering coverage--and as a result, silenced the media on the unfolding Plame Affair. Reprinted with permission.

On the eve of the Scooter Libby indictments, a search of transcritps via the Nexis database revealed that since Sept 28, 2003, when the Washington Post first revealed there had been a concerted effort from inside the White House to try to discredit Joseph Wilson, CBS's award-winning investigative series 60 Minutes, as well as its spin-off 60 Minutes II, aired approximately 180 episodes during that time frame. Zero of them examined the Plame case. Over at NBC it was the same story with the network's primetime news magazine, Dateline. Between Sept. 28, 2003, and Oct. 28, 2005, Dateline aired approximately 100 episodes. Zero of them examined the Plame case. More of the same at ABC's Primetime Live, which aired approximinately 100 episodes. Zero addressed the Plame case. That meant in the 24 months after the Plame story broke, there were nearly 400 broadcasts of ABC, CBS and NBC's signature long form news programs and none reported on the leak investigation that reached into the most senior levels of the White House. It was worse if added into the equation was the fact that shows like 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II include multiple topics within each broadcast. That meant between Sept. 2003 and Oct. 2005, the network news magazines aired at least 750 reports. None were about the most talked-about criminal investigation of the Bush presidency.

Fact: During the 24 months between Sept. 2003 and Sept. 2005, ABC's Nightline devoted just three full programs to the unfolding Plame investigation, for which a special assistant to the president was eventually indicted. On the night of the Libby indictmnets, Nightline devoted just five percent of its program to that topic. In the week following the criminal charges, Nightline never revisted the issue. Compare that to the fact that during the 24 months between Jan. 1994 and Jan. 1994, ABC's Nightline devoted 19 programs to the then-unfolding Whitewater real estate scandal. The MSM's stunning apathy on the Plame story did not reflect mainstream Americans, 79 percent of whom said the indictment of Libby was a matter of importance to the nation; a greater percentage than who said the same thing about 1998 charges that Clinton had lied under oath about his affair with Lewinsky.

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And this is more proof of that.

:kick:

This should be a good book on those lapdoggin hypocrites.