Our producers were instructed to feature two conservatives for every liberal

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/29/yellin/

Thursday May 29, 2008 06:03 EDT

CNN/MSNBC reporter: Corporate executives forced pro-Bush, pro-war narrative

<snip>In April of 2003, then-MSNBC star Ashleigh Banfield delivered a speech at Kansas State University and said that American news coverage of the Iraq war attracted high ratings but "wasn't journalism," because "there are horrors that were completely left out of this war." She added, echoing Couric:

The other thing is that so many voices were silent in this war. We all know what happened to Susan Sarandon for speaking out, and her husband, and we all know that this is not the way Americans truly want to be. Free speech is a wonderful thing, it's what we fight for, but the minute it's unpalatable we fight against it for some reason.

That just seems to be a trend of late, and l am worried that it may be a reflection of what the news was and how the news coverage was coming across. . . . I think there were a lot of dissenting voices before this war about the horrors of war, but I'm very concerned about this three-week TV show and how it may have changed people's opinions. It was very sanitized.

Shortly thereafter, Banfield was demoted, then fired altogether, and -- as Digby put it in her great analysis of Banfield's speech -- "she's now a co-anchor on a Court TV show."

At the same time, MSNBC fired the only real war opponent it had, Phil Donahue, despite very healthy ratings (the highest of any show on MSNBC, including "Hardball"). When interviewed for Bill Moyers' truly superb 2007 documentary on press behavior in the run-up to the war, Donahue reported much the same thing as Yellin, Couric, and Banfield revealed: snip

PHIL DONOHUE: You could have the supporters of the President alone. And they would say why this war is important. You couldn't have a dissenter alone. Our producers were instructed to feature two conservatives for every liberal.

They had to bring in Savage.

It's about time people started talking about this openly. And often.

We're never going to be any good again unless and until we get our free press back.

:kick:

Dem nominee's speech was DENIED airtime by every single news network. Few even reported it occurred and NONE would run the clips of the speech in even a regular news rotation.

The liberal media is taking over..... You can't turn on the teeeeeveeee without seeing a liberal -----
:eyes:

of their military contractor/war profiteering arm. 'Twould be lunacy!

never looked back.

The propaganda they inflicted on the citizens of this country should not be overlooked.

The media did a far better job before Reagan repealed it.

SILENCE~!

That and the blackout on all coverage of the massive "Don't attack Iraq" and "Get out of Iraq" demonstrations, where millions of Americans hit the streets.. . The massive marches in DC that we had to catch on TRAFFIC CAMS for God's sake.

It left a taste in my mouth that will probably never clear. I'm nearly 60 and I don't see it getting cleansed in my lifetime.

from 'unapproved' sources.
:grr:

killed on 9/11 reporting for those sleezebags. No good deed goes unpunished.

:kick:

The problem isn't so much that media outlets are biased towards the ownership-- that's always been true. The problem is that there are exceedingly few owners, and they're all cross pollinated with the weapons industry, the energy industry, etc. Big media outlets are essentially PR wings for the conglomerates that own them.

Break them up.

It wouldn't have been a fair fight if it had been 1:1, now would it?:evilgrin:

while USAmericans watched fearless reporters taking Tikrit on their own... (and that was funny and surreal for those of us watching at strange hours of the night)...

What did their counterparts in Mexico see? Well there was this piece of footage I saw on the news service. A Corpsman taking care of a US Trooper, I think Marine, at Nasaryah. The camera panned down to the missing two legs, Well rather mangled two legs, with white bone sticking up, and a pool of blood and a couple of tourniquets, and then to the face of the young man, pure sheer pain and eyes full of tears. And then it panned to the reporter describing the mess in that lone road, a mike in his hand, and an IV bag on the other.

And while USAmericans watched fearless troops advancing on Baghdad, their counterparts in Canada saw on CBC the collapsed building where the only thing visible were a pool of blood, and two legs covered in blue pants. Oh and a tank that had just run over an Iraqi, the run over victim was a tad flat... not kidding.

So yes, you could say it was sanitized...