The media allowed itself to be led around by the nose by the Bush administration and Rove machine

[Skidmore]

for nearly a decade. They were "embedded" and had minders and were trained to drool when their minders whistled. We learned back then that they were easily bought--all it took was good food on a campaign bus or plane. The whole notion that these idiots who allowed themselves to be take notes for a truly corrupt administration suddenly are paragons of independent journalism just makes me livid. I would wager that the dynamics for a truly free press has actually existed since the Bushies left town but the fools were so used to their gilded cages. I'm having a real hard time with the notion that the freedom of the press has been chilled all of a sudden. What did they think was going on 10-12 years ago?

[Dawson Leery]

1. k/r

[leftyohiolib]

2. the press was bought with access. access to the potus was lost if you asked the wrong question

and when that wasnt enough they threw judith miller into the mix and btw who was that whore they gave a press-pass to

[Mnemosyne]

7. Jeff Gannon, regular after hour visitor to WH. nt

[Whisp]

3. yah. and that includes Rachel

she was so full of prideful shit about the sanctity of 'journalism' last night I had to turn it off. Hey Rach, your bosses at NBC profit from wars and mayhem, how does that tickle your altruist funny bone?

[BlueCaliDem]

4. I was pretty disgusted by Rachel Maddow last night, too.

It's as if they've completely swallowed her up and she's become just another pro-media person, rather than a journalist and I couldn't watch her anymore.

I enjoyed Lawrence O'Donnell's show, though. He was pretty right on the mark.

[Cha]

6. Good to know! thanks BlueCaliDem.

[Half-Century Man]

5. The First Amendment is reduced to a political tool.

The government has the first amendment (which they wrote long ago) to protect the free speech of the people and the press from the government itself. The media monopolies use that same protection to protect their profits through a political propaganda machine (delivered via "news programs&quot . All the monopolies do it, all are conservative to some degree, all have a vested interest in keeping the publics attention focused on the trivial instead of their tightening collar.