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Who's Running The Asylum?
There are two meta-media stories that deserve as much close scrutiny as possible. These two stories are an education in exactly how far the media has come to, and then gone completely over the edge of reason, past the brink of insanity, all while grabbing a big torch and setting fire to whatever rules of ethics and standards they had/have for their profession.
Story One--Judith Miller
No not THAT story, of her rotting away, or writing a book, in a jail cell in Alexandria, Virginia. I'm talking about the other story being reported by Arianna Huffington. The far more interesting story. The meta news story, wherein, the reporter insinuates herself into the news, becomes the news, and then asks, how did I get here?
For starters, of course, we have her still unfolding involvement in the Plame leak. Earlier this month, Howard Kurtz reported that Miller and Libby spoke a few days before Novak outed Plame -- and I’m hearing that the Libby/Miller conversation occurred over breakfast in Washington. Did Valerie Plame come up -- and, if so, who brought her up? There is no question that Miller was angry at Joe Wilson… and continues to be. A social acquaintance of Miller told me that, once, when she spoke of Wilson, it was with “a passionate and heated disgust that went beyond the political and included an irrelevant bit of deeply personal innuendo about him, her mouth twisting in hatred.”
Miller’s special relationships go much further than Scooter Libby, Richard Perle and the rest of the neocon establishment. Take her involvement as an embedded reporter during the war with the Pentagon’s Mobile Exploitation Team (MET) Alpha -- the unit charged with hunting down Saddam’s WMD. As extensively reported by both Kurtz and New York Magazine’s Franklin Foer, Miller’s time with the unit was highly unusual.
First, there was the fact that she landed the plum assignment in the first place. It would give her first dibs on the biggest story of the war… the hoped-for reveal of Saddam’s much-touted WMD (with much of the touting done by Miller herself and her special sources). Was this the reward for her pro-administration prewar reporting?
Foer cites military and New York Times sources as saying that Miller’s assignment was so sensitive that Don Rumsfeld himself signed off on it. Once embedded, Miller acted as much more than a reporter. Kurtz quotes one military officer as saying that the MET Alpha unit became a “Judith Miller team.” Another officer said that Miller “came in with a plan. She was leading them… She ended up almost hijacking the mission.” A third officer, a senior staffer of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, of which MET Alpha was a part, put it this way: “It’s impossible to exaggerate the impact she had on the mission of this unit, and not for the better.”
Welcome to the bizarro world of Judy Miller, whatever she is.
Then there is this story, coming to us from Atrios, about the new method Republicans have devised in order to turn newspapers into part of the propaganda arm of the White House, and create their own mini-Politburo directed Pravda.
From Atrios (out of courtesy, please go to his site for the Washington Post and Roll Call links, thanks):
It looks like Republicans have learned a new trick in the media. If you give exclusive stories to journalists with the condition that no Democrats are to be allowed to comment on the story, journalists think that's a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Not only that, but they won't even bother to do any additional research for the story.
We recently had the Washington Post doing this, with the journalists not "allowed" to contact anyone else about the story until after it would be too late for the morning paper. And now we have Roll Call doing the same.
So in the first instance, we have a reporter directing the Army Unit she is supposed to be reporting on, herself becoming part of the story, replete with mysterious entanglements, and God-Knows-What relationships with friends/enemies of the US, such as Ahmed Chalabi.
In the second instance, we have a full-on corruption of the ethical and reportorial process by no less that two newspapers of well-established and well-credentialed records.
Are the editors falling on their heads and injuring their brains? Is it something in the water? Some sort of editorial battle fatigue?
Just how much farther does the Culture of Corruption and its concomitant seeping seemyness have to ooze and slither its way into the daily institutions of our lives before people will rise up, one after another, after another, after another, and pound that steady drumbeat cry of "No more. No more. No more."
A free and open press is one of the most important tools of liberty we have. And while we have accustomed ourselves to the biases of different media outlets, it seems as though there is a whole new level of truth-twisting trying to take hold.
And the question is still, when will the people demand better quality and higher standards in reporting? When will reporters themselves begin speaking of the intimidation tactics used by members of political parties to manipulate them? How much more will it take, and how much more can we stand?
We need a free press, and we need it now.
YAY! We are back on the 'net--only took about five hours over three days on phone with Verizon. Also got completely wrong diagnoses and solutions four times...
But the rage is subsiding and here we are, ready to work anew.
Hear! Hear! Way to go, Casey!!! Brilliant thread header!
Sometimes Justice does occur in this insane world we currently have in this country, and Miller is exactly where she belongs...and she does belong in jail, IMHO, (1) for promoting pResNitwit's War and his lying justifications for his war, and (2) very likely participating in outing Plame and/or knowing the name of the traitor who outed Plame and keeping it a secret, which makes her an accessory to multiple crimes, including treason. (You all know my humble opinion about reporters and protecting sources: if they are protecting a whistleblower, they should keep their sources secret; if they are participating in a crime during or after the fact, they should lose their right to protect a source). I hope no one ever reads a word of anything Miller ever writes in the future....
It also makes me feel less 'paranoid' about the fact that for years I noticed a disturbing trend for talking heads shows to present the neoCon view last... they had the last word, which implied heavily that their opinions were the correct opinions for viewers to adopt and that the neoCons were somehow telling the truth even as I knew perfectly good and well they were lying throughout the interviews, and Dems have been left in the dust, opinions and facts that were accurate were dissed openly or by implication....
Mainstream media "journalists" really need to wake up to how they have been participating in covering up the crimes of this administration when they do nothing but report WH and Pentagon propaganda (and I have a feeling it will get worse with Karen Hughes as the new Propaganda Czar), and that in the future if they start reporting facts and truth again, it may be that no one will ever take them seriously, or believe them, or read what they have to say.....
~~~~~
Welcome back, Karen! Glad your problems were resolved....!
Casey,
These stories are disturbing, but show the reasons why we need to be the media. We can be responsible citizens who do the homework, ask the questions, and get the truth out there.
Dick was talking about his days as a political researcher the other evening--how he used to have to go over to the FEC to see what donations had been made and to whom--and how he had to stand in line to use a Xerox machine, with tons of nickels and dimes...How he had to actually go to the LOC and pull up dusty documents...
Blogs and forums and chats can save so much time and the internet provides access not-ever-dreamed-of back then. Our own community's wisdom and experience is considerable, and the sharing of it that happens here may be better and more timely than what happens in newsrooms.
We need to be wise about our sources, and to verify what we learn with several sources, but we have heretofore unavailable opportunities to learn and share the truth.
Over the next few weeks, as many of us go off on vacation, or return from vacation to catching up, let's make sure we also think about how to move ahead in this learning community.
Ariana has a different and somewhat intriguing idea about Judy Miller:
But a very different scenario is being floated in the halls. Here it is: It's July 6, 2003, and Joe Wilson's now famous op-ed piece appears in the Times, raising the idea that the Bush administration has "manipulate[d]" and "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." Miller, who has been pushing this manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times for months, goes ballistic. Someone is using the pages of her own paper to call into question the justification for the war -- and, indirectly, much of her reporting. The idea that intelligence was being fixed goes to the heart of Miller's credibility. So she calls her friends in the intelligence community and asks, Who is this guy? She finds out he's married to a CIA agent. She then passes on the info about Mrs. Wilson to Scooter Libby (Newsday has identified a meeting Miller had on July 8 in Washington with an "unnamed government official"). Maybe Miller tells Rove too -- or Libby does. The White House hatchet men turn around and tell Novak and Cooper. The story gets out.
This is why Miller doesn't want to reveal her "source" at the White House -- because she was the source. Sure, she first got the info from someone else, and the odds are she wasn't the only one who clued in Libby and/or Rove (the State Dept. memo likely played a role too)... but, in this scenario, Miller certainly wasn't an innocent writer caught up in the whirl of history. She had a starring role in it. This also explains why Miller never wrote a story about Plame, because her goal wasn't to write a story, but to get out the story that cast doubts on Wilson's motives. Which Novak did.
And then concludes:
But one thing is inescapable: Miller -- intentionally or unintentionally -- worked hand in glove in helping the White House propaganda machine (for a prime example, check out this Newsweek story on how the aluminum tubes tall tale went from a government source to Miller to page one of the New York Times to Cheney and Rice going on the Sunday shows to confirm the story to Bush pushing that same story at the UN).
So, once again, the question arises (and you can't have it both ways, Frank): when it comes to this scandal, do you want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth or do you want the truth -- except for what Judy Miller wants to keep to herself?
Find more Arianna at Ariannaonline.com.
Great header, Casey.
Some Saturday inspiration from 2003:
"I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time. With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicate in the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and transportation, but interconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free. I offer this prayer for America."
snip
" Let us pray for our children. Our children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world. Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic traditions. Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society. Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace,
not war as being inevitable. Let us work for a world where someday war becomes archaic."
snip
"...A universe free of fear. Where we can look up at God's creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite war, because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. Let us pray that we have the courage to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers of images of September the Eleventh, faded into images of patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization, jump cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World Series, New Year's Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of human relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere."
"That is the America which has the ability to rally the support of the world. That is the America which stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and faith and peace and freedom. America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America. Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not through establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good, America. America, America.
" Let us pray for our country. Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not only from the threats without, but from the threats within. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood, and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic justice here at home and throughout the world. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good."
http://www.themoderntribune.com/dennis_kucinich_speech_february_17,_2003_-_presidential_candidate_2004.htm#A%20Prayer%20for%20America
"It also makes me feel less 'paranoid' about the fact that for years I noticed a disturbing trend for talking heads shows to present the neoCon view last... they had the last word, which implied heavily that their opinions were the correct opinions for viewers to adopt and that the neoCons were somehow telling the truth"
Posted by Nonny
Nonny, I frequently screamed about this very thing on the Kerry blog. It's not your imagination, it actually is the case almost all the time. The other trick, if they put the progressive view last, is to a)make it brief, b)make a dismissive comment after it, and c) show unflattering photo backdrops with it, or draw out the positive neocon photos all through the progressive speaker's time.
None of this is anyone's imagination. It's real.
This just in from AfterDowningStreet.org:
Forty members of Congress have now co-sponsored Congresswoman Barbara Lee's Resolution of Inquiry, including some generally known as moderates. See: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/902
Many more will almost certainly do so if asked by their constituents.
Democracy for America is taking up the cause of promoting investigation of the Downing Street Memos. They have organized meetings all over the country on Wednesday, August 3, and you can sign up for one here: http://dfa.meetup.com/
Later in the month of August, DFA will organize meetings with Congress Members while they are home in their district offices. Sixty of these meetings have already been scheduled. At these meetings, people will ask their Congress Members to co-sponsor Rep. Lee's Resolution. To help organize these events, participate in the MeetUps on Wednesday.
The AfterDowningStreet coalition is supporting this effort, and we encourage all of our member organizations and individuals to promote both Wednesday's MeetUps and this month's meetings with Congress Members in their district offices.
For lists of Congress Members who are especially important to reach on this, and for materials, see: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/902
Posted by: Amy at July 30, 2005 02:38 PM
I've regularly yelled at the TV since the 2000 pre-election coverage because of the same things, Amy.... it's so insulting and infuriating - not to mention downright disrespectful....
It's nice to know it's not all my imagination, but it's not comforting (I really wanted it to be my imagination, see...). It means that the gullible people who think the media is still honest actually believe some of the utter crap coming out of the mouths of the neoCons and talking heads who should be fired for regularly lying to the people watching.
All in all, unless I have to, it's better to leave the TV off except for local in-state news and weather reports and the nearly half a dozen shows I actually watch (and it saves me having to buy a new TV if I break the danged thing when I throw something at it!).
IF the preview for next week's NOW show on PBS is any indication of a potentially good show to watch, we might all want to try to catch it. It's about how mainstream media is failing all of us in this nation..... I plan to catch it. Last night's show was a lollapalooza (Kansas, Kline, and the new abortion laws he got passed, and his obsession with "children" having abortions - truly sickening - Indy and I posted comments about it on the last thread). There will be a rerun of NOW tomorrow afternoon, and I've not yet decided if I should try to catch the show or not; likely there may be a transcript online by now, but Kline, like Santorum, is - IMHO - certifiable, and I've no idea how they got elected to their offices (rigged elections?).
Posted by: Karen at July 30, 2005 02:48 PM
I love Barbara Lee!!! She was the only one who voted against pResNitwit's War! I see one of our favorite Reps (Conyers) is on the list. My Rep is on the list, too (Oberstar), which I find heartening, since he's usually such a Harvey Milquetoast character, so I've written to congratulate him for signing on.....
NonnyO:
Thans for telling Oberstar he did the right thing. At the progressive intern event the other day, several people made the point that CONGRESS NEEDS TO HEAR FROM US--not only when we tell them what we want them to do, but when they do it too!
So few ever get thanked (except through the gifts from lobbyists--uh oh--did I just say GIFTS? I meant tokens... thank-you notes--just a small group of friends getting together to jet off to Cancun...), and when they break out a little and do the right thing, it means a lot to show that you are paying attention!
P.S. I am NOT recommending sending gifts to your members....heheheheh!
Or even trips to Cancun!
Donate to a nice nonprofit instead...
CAFTA's Deciding Votes Were Coerced
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073005X.shtml
I suspect many jobs will be lost in the US because of CAFTA.... How much you want to bet "made in ___" (fill in the blank, South American country) will be appearing at your local Wal-Mart very soon...?
~~~~~~~~
Karen -
Oberstar has two regional offices (this is a very large district, covers a lot of counties), and one of them is in my town, and it's a local phone call... Uh huh... I call and talk to the guy (who, as it turns out, is a cousin to someone who was a local state rep from this area)! I also got his email address at the local office and sent him links to all the prominent web sites that feature some reputable stories - all of which I obtained as far back as the Kerry blog. One of the phone chats I had with the local fellow was about MSM, the disaster the media has been for America since 2000.... and told him if he couldn't use his government email address to sign up for e-newsletters, to get a yahoo or hotmail address and sign up for all the free e-newsletters and he could be filled in on what "the rest of us" in America think and know from internet web sites that give us facts we can't find in MSM, especially TV.
So, for good or ill, compliments or criticism, yes, I have the means to give my Rep my two cents' worth. The online email address is to his office in DC, and it's not the same as to the fellow in his local office in town, but I can still give him my opinion - and thanks - in more ways than one!
And, yes... when politicians do the right thing for the people they represent, they do deserve an "Atta boy" or "Atta girl" with a thumbs up.... (Well, okay... in more polite language, but same effect....) :-) Otherwise, yes, Karen, you're right: they'd listen to the ones who give "gifts"....
I had no idea that Judith Miller was in that deep with the neocons. May she rot in jail for as long as Fitzgerald can keep her there.
Hey all, just a brief check in.....
Real journalism is dead. Reporting fact, researching, talking to numerous sources, following leads, taking opposing commentary, all of those things are gone from real journalism.
Are they lazy? Is it all about keeping access? Getting invited to the right parties? Seeking to be a star rather than being a source of information for people? Who knows? These people, these so called journalists, have wasted whatever talent and comittment to finding the truth that they ever had. They are a disgrace, and yet, no matter how hard we try, hey just keep on doing it.
If they were on top of things, if they truly did unbiased reporting, there would be no need for blogs would there? There would be no need for information sharing on the internetS. Little by little, they make themselves irrelevant. We are not a fad. News, reporting, digging for the truth, if we do it, and they don't, AND they ignore us as just a fad, it will be to their detriment. It's not going to happen over night, but it will happen.
So, keep doing what we are doing. Time and the truth are on our side. I have to believe that.
Bush Will Defy Congress on Bolton
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073005Z.shtml
{{{ Any takers on a timeline for when pResNitwit will appoint Bolton? My crystal ball says within six hours of the Congressional summer recess....}}}
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/politics/30bolton.html
Bolton Not Truthful, 36 Senators Charge in Opposing Appointment
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/politics/30patriot.html
Senate Makes Permanent Nearly All Provisions of Patriot Act, With a Few Restrictions
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/politics/30cong.html
Senate Approves Bill Protecting Gun Businesses
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072902038.html
U.S. Evicted From Air Base In Uzbekistan
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-forhire30jul30,0,461431.story
Worry Grows as Foreigners Flock to Iraq's Risky Jobs
WASHINGTON - For hire: more than 1,000 U.S.-trained former soldiers and police officers from Colombia. Combat-hardened, experienced in fighting insurgents and ready for duty in Iraq. By Sonni Efron.
{{{ All the usual suspects are in this line-up - DynCorp, Blackwater... Halliburton companies - and it lists other countries besides Columbia where they've hired mercenaries for Iraq, and they're also paid less than American mercenaries.... Hmmmmmm.... with a decline in military enlistment, it sounds like equal opportunity outsourcing of jobs when Rummy, et al., start hiring mercenaries from other countries..... CAFTA, military-style....}}}
Posted by: Karen at July 30, 2005 03:18 PM
Karen...
Cancun? And WHAT job do I need to get this free token to Cancun?
Count me IN!!!!
Sparrow - you need to get past Go and collect $200
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