Have you guys seen this? Broadcast Journalists Fire Back

[CatWoman]

The White House, the courts and the Federal Communications Commission all took hits from broadcast journalists Thursday night, who said they were feeling under fire from a manipulative and even malicious government.

NBC News President Neal Shapiro set the tone, telling a roomful of top journalists gathered for the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation awards dinner in D.C. that the press is under attack as never before from the executive and judicial branches, which he says are pursuing journalists with "actual malice" just for doing their jobs.

It's time to "sound the alarm," he said. That call was picked up by other speakers and punctuated with applause from the crowd.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA510012.html?display=Breaking%20News&referral=SUPP

[LibertyorDeath]

1. We'll see

I'm not holding my breath though.

[Tomee450]

28. I'm not holding my

breath either. It's partly because of their greed and cowardice that this democratic republic has become so fragile.

[Me.]

2. If They Had Done Their Jobs In The First Place

maybe things wouldn't have come to such a pass. Maybe ***H wouldn't have been "elected" twice if they had told the story, and then some of their fellow journalists wouldn't have been accomplices to the crimes of the admin. Perhaps if they could tell the difference between whistleblowers and those of their profession who chose to aid & abet, they might still have their integrity. If they don't like where they're standing they have only themselves to blame.

[QC]

15. Amen! n/t

[Tomee450]

29. They're complaining?

What nerve. They were so biased in their coverage of Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry. They bear much of the responsibility for the mess this country is now in.

[Ganja Ninja]

65. Exactly! Only last week they were whoring the ...

"Bush was right" mantra. Bush is impeachable on a number of counts but I don't see them harping 24/7 on any of them.

[DBoon]

3. They are finally figuring this out???

Of course, it must be getting bad if the corporate suits at the news media are alarmed.

[senseandsensibility]

4. What's their angle?

After four years of abject subservience to this administration, I don't believe them for a second.

[Liberty Belle]

8. When the Bushies started jailing journalists for not turning over

sources, the MSM realized things have gone too far.

A ray of hope here, perhaps? If the Ukranian state-owned media could find the guts to speak out, perhaps the spineless US media might do so eventually.

[tsuki]

32. The Ukranian state-owned media were not risking million in

contract deals and a beltway lifestyle.

The response was what...<yawn>

[yodermon]

47. I really hope you're not talking about Judith "Traitor" Miller

and the Valerie Plame Grand Jury.

[Liberty Belle]

54. How is Judith Miller a traitor when she never published Plame's name?

If any journalist qualifies as a traitor, it's Novak, who's out and scott free.

[fromBrooklyn]

63. Novak for Plame, Yes, Miller has other charms

specifically she was Chalabi's mouthpiece. (unapetizing image, that).
And effectively put up the "evidence" in the press to substantiate going to war. Reminds you of Hearst, right? "You provide pictures, I'll provide the war..."?

[Liberty Belle]

66. Kinda like today's Doonesbury cartoon. It shows

Bush fretting that he can't use a fake journalist like Gannon anymore, so he'll just have to buy a real one.

[ultraist]

10. good point, WHY NOW?

[CatWoman]

13. the bunch of assholes

they were all laughing at Dan Rather, and helping the BFEE ridicule him.

Now the BFEE is coming after them and they have finally found a "voice".

[FreedomAngel82]

16. I'm with you

Is this a trick? I don't know. Why are they speaking out NOW?

[ultraist]

18. Maybe it's related to the new study

that shows a BIG increase in people getting their news from the web. We also know blogs are really growing at a rapid rate. They may be feeling the heat from this and are starting to realize that if they keep pimping our news, we will cancel our cable. Just a guess.

[Enquiringkitty]

21. I think you've got something there. They come up with this after the

report on people getting news off computer instead of TV and they saw a Blogger in the White House Briefing room....something they never thought they'd see. Before the CEOs thought we were just a bunch of comp-geeks bitchin' but now we get the news we want...effect the news and get into briefing rooms at the White House.

Yes...they are scared of loosing shares and being proved wrong on stories they report.

[girl gone mad]

24. I'm certain they are only complaining..

over the Plame affair.

They're content to spew propoganda 24/7, but ask them to try and distinguish between a genuine source and an administration official committing a serious crime and then they cry foul.

[SmokingJacket]

58. My guess: It benefits Bushco if it looks like the media hate him.

This plays into their yakyakyak about the Liberal Media. After how many years of dancing to to Bushco's tune, they realize that people are beginning to notice.

Now they pretend they have a backbone, that they're independent agents, there'll be some legislation about keeping Govt influence out of media... and they can go back to the same old games. Only now with more legitimacy.

Or who knows?? Maybe they're crying for real. Maybe the Govt cut off the kickbacks or something.

[Nite Owl]

5. They are just noticing?

Some of these folks just ought to be reading DU for the past few years we could have told them that. And after the election they see the light!

[ebayfool]

6. First step in any 12 step program, admitting you have a problem.

Looks like some have an idea that they have a problem?! Now, let's see if they can take the next step & do something about it.

snip/
Shapiro attributed some of the repressive climate to frustrated governmnent officials who, having failed to please their superiors, take it out on journalists. But he also cited "a handful of scandals" that have tarred the broadcast industry and a post-9/11 climate that contributed to the crackdown. He advised journalists to do a better job of showing themselves as reporters, rather than entertainers.

snip/
ABC's Sam Donaldson, master of ceremonies, said he had never seen such "vitriolic animus" toward journalists, save for the waning days of the Nixon administration. Donaldson said he hears commentators from the right and left trying to convince the public that the mainstream press cannot be trusted. It's time to "fire back," he said.

snip/
Donaldson said he wasn't advocating suppressing commentary, punctuating the point with: "Let every flower bloom." But he suggested that if some flowers were blooming thanks to a load of manure, that should be pointed out, too. "They should have to answer to those who think they got it wrong."

[Straight Shooter]

7. Don't look now, Shapiro, but the horse left the barn a long, long time ago

Nitwit. x(

[Cleita]

9. What exactly was not doing their jobs?

I thought they have been in lockstep for at least five years.

[high density]

11. Does Shapiro even watch his own newscast?

I'd say probably not.

[leftchick]

42. LOL! good point!

I am betting not as well. From that creepy today show in the morning to the MSRNC embarrassment all day long to the evening news with Brian (Don't my hair look great?) Williams??? OMG I would vomit from the humiliation.

[stopbush]

12. The buggy whip salesmen have noticed that people don't need them

anymore.

How sad.

Their time is past.

[jazzjunkysue]

17. Would we have blogs if they had run real news stories?

Which came first? The chicken producers or the brave bloggers? They resent the fact that we do their jobs for nothing. But without the power and connections and money to do the investigations and interviews, we'll never get far enough to do serious harm to the administration. So, we'd all be better off if we were back in the Watergate days when you got impeached for breaking and entering.

[Just Me]

14. OMG I hope they are finding their courage and integrity!!!

I would certainly support them and defend them if they fight back!!!

This is fabulous information!!! :bounce:

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting it!!!

[Pithy Cherub]

46. Your gettin' your bounce on a bit early...but keep practicing!

We are at the lip service portion of the event. The m$m is just like * say one thing and do another!

The m$m believes they are "victims" not the actual accountable perps of all the media crimes. We, The people, own the airwaves and right to free speech, the m$m thought they owned us...not.

Looking forward to getting my bounce on for bloggers!:evilgrin:

[Elidor]

19. Just wait until somebody tells them the Bushies have killed journalists!

They might even write something critical! :freak: What a bunch of tools.

"Golly gee! Those Bushies sure are mean and hateful! Someone should tell them we don't like them kickin' sand in our faces."

[kentuck]

20. They shoot journalists, don't they?

and not just horses...

[zann725]

27. Indeed. The irony of it all...

n/t

[Kber]

61. Obviously they thought they could ride the tiger

and it would be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Now they realize that they might have a hard time getting down w/out being eaten. Bush - kinda like the mafia - once you are in, you are in for life!

[hatrack]

22. Why "sound the alarm"? The buildling already burned down

And they sat there and they took their bonuses and their paychecks and their stock options and bought their summer homes and their new Lexuses and they didn't do a GODDAMNED THING for the last four years.

Instead they ran Laci and Scott and Jacko and Bennifer and cheery morning news shows with lots of new recipies and diet-related news, and interviews with hot new stars and reminders that you shouldn't leave pets in closed cars in the middle of the summer, and the hills were alive with the sound of Infotainment.

And now the president of NBC News says it's time to "sound the alarm". Well that's great, Neal. That's just gut-bustingly courage-inspiringly great. :eyes:

Fuck these people and their alarm-soundings. Remember only this: WE ARE ON OUR OWN.

[wellst0nev0ter]

23. Here's A Quick Cure, Just Install A Democratic President

THEN you'll find your balls for "agreesive reporting"

[jmatthan]

25. This is to kill the NYTimes story out today

http://view.atdmt.com/VON/iview/nwyrkvon0320000032von/direct/01/2005.03.13.07.46.40?click=

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News

In an eight web page article by By DAVID BARSTOW and ROBIN STEIN, the absolute criminality of the Bush Administration is revealed.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications...." MORE

I have covered this in my blog entry for today

http://jmpolitics.blogspot.com

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

[blondeatlast]

41. Why should they pursue something when the Heritage Foundation and

our own government packages it for them ready-for-camera?

One of the biggest problems they have is that they are LAZY.

[Stirk]

26. These "journalists" have repeatedly shown how much

backbone they have. Whenever one of them sticks his/her neck out to report some actual news, the others all pile on and run endless pro-government propaganda until the troublemaker is removed. Eason Jordan, Dan Rather, Ashleigh Banfield... the list is very long.

They're cowardly corporate suck-ups. They won't be changing a damn thing.

[Swamp Rat]

30. Fuck 'em!

They're all goddamn corporate, Bush licking lizards! ... I really need a big photo of Brian Williams. :D

[magellan]

31. My heart bleeds not

Bradley talked of the pressure by government and corporations to "control the message," saying journalists must fight those efforts. "There is a price to pay," he said, for representing the people.

Oh, bra-VO!

The award for "Seriously Undermining U.S. Democracy" goes to every one of you spineless, self-interested, 'opinion is news', Corporate Media cretins.

[NightOwwl]

33. It's not just bloggers and the "looney left" getting their news...

from alternative sources anymore. I think it's gotten to the point where the mainstream audience is starting to figure out that mainstream media is an empty shell.

Which is why they are making noises now. Poor babies, they had plenty of warning they were on the verge of extinction but they didn't like those wacky messengers. Now that it's their mom, dad, sister, brother who are turning their backs, they've decided it might be time to "sound the alarm." :nopity:

[Octafish]

34. Ben Bagdikian and Mark Hertsgaard warned 'em years ago.

So now they're catching on. Better late than never. If they need any leads, they can try the DU archives.

PS: Thanks for the heads-up CatWoman. Do you think Operation MOCKINGBIRD's Riggs account was closed for insufficient funds?

[CatWoman]

48. Thanks

and yes. ;)

[katinmn]

35. Why are they asking permission? They sound victimized.

They have the power -- they're just not using it.

They know they could easily be replaced by someone more sympathetic to Bush.

[Nay]

36. Sound the alarm? Now? Why? The house has burned down, the kids

have been raped and murdered, and dad and mom have been lynched in the trees.

It's too late now, you lazy rat bastards!!! If we get out of this mess by the skin of our teeth, it ain't gonna be because you finally got your shit together!

[in_cog_ni_to]

37. How funny is this?

I know DU members have spent the better part of the last 5 years emailing journalists about their BIASED coverage and it's all been ignored by them (except Olbermann).

They spent 8 years sensationalizing the Clinton RW attack. NOW???? they have decided they're under attack as never before from the executive and judicial branches, which he says are pursuing journalists with "actual malice" just for doing their jobs.????????????^%$#@#$% Give me a damn break. Our country has gone to hell in a hand basket while THEY participated.

THEY embedded themselves with the Pentagon in Iraq knowing damn full well that they could report ONLY what the Pentagon vetted as acceptable.

Let us not forget the "SHOCK AND AWE" news coverage...24/7. ENDLESS sensationalized march to war. It was absolutely DISGUSTING!!!!

They put the Swift-boat Liars on the air DAILY to bash Kerry.

They played the Howard Dean "Scream" tape 50,000 times a day and deliberately ruined his candidacy.

They REFUSED to go after the Bush AWOL story knowing it is TRUE.

Ask Greg Palast about the investigative report about the purged Florida voters he gave CBS. CBS called JEB BUSH to see if it was true!!!!!????&^%$# Since Jeb said it wasn't true, CBS decided not to run the story??? BULLSHIT!

There's so much more they are responsible for. :nuke:

The MSM has been complicit in the downfall of our Democracy and NOW they are concerned? They can kiss my ass. They knew what the fuck they were doing. Why now? What has changed for them? Did they all of sudden develop a conscience? They can go to hell. :grr:

[katinmn]

49. The American people are attacking them, not Bushco

Bushco is pleased at the way the obediant media was a cheerleader for the war and continues to be an acomplice in selling the lies to the public.

It still looks to me like MSM is having a trantrum and asking Daddy Bush for permission to start reporting the facts.

Attention MSM: You have to take back your power. Bushco won't give it to you.

If those in power aren't criticizing and pressuring you, you're not doing your damn job!

[Chicago1]

38. The Media is in ALOT of trouble...the nerve of him to say this

Well, it looks like they MIGHT have woken up. WE'LL SEE!!! I'll believe it when I see it and hear it!!!

The media has done A HORRIBLE JOB of reporting the news and they know it!!!!

I have to give the all the election "irregularity" news to my mother from all of these sites. She said "the blogs are just a waste of time". I told her "Mom, that's how you're getting your news about this "election"" and she shut her mouth.

The media has ALOT OF NERVE to sit there and FINALLY say that they're under attack. What an idiotic bunch of idiots to figure out NOW that they HAVE NOT done their job.

Waiting for the IMPEACHMENT WHILE THE SCANDALS KEEP UNFOLDING.

[KharmaTrain]

39. Another Take...

This is endemic of the dumbing down of the corporate media. This was a group of frustrated underlings...most who enjoy a nice living in the corporate mold...spewing frustration, like some controlled release. Now back to your cubicles and start rewriting those White House press releases.

This reflects on the dumbing down of corporate media. Twenty years of consolidation and derulation has eliminated competition, scaled back staffs and opportunities and cheapened the overall product. To "make it" in the biz, you need to suck up and jump high. If you don't perform the way the corporation wants you to, you can't run across the street to the competitor since they probably own that station, too.

Of course these folks don't like getting squeezed and rolled every day. Who does? They're just the worker ants in this large media nest.

[AnnInLa]

51. Excellent point....cuz if you dumb down the media, then you dumb down

the listening sheeple

[CatWoman]

52. LOLOL

"REPUBLICAN" JESUS???

What a hoot!!!!!

[Blue_Roses]

40. well, it's about damn time

nt

[tinonedown]

43. Using a pop gun

Not much fire in it. But it is something, maybe it will start a backlash against the right MSM movement.

[lonestarnot]

44. Screw this brown nos'n bunch! Sick of them! They are not real!

[Gin]

45. Just like shrub...don't listen to what they say....pay attention to what

they do......... now that those words were uttered....I can't imagine any changes in news coverage....the job of "Repeater" is too lucrative to give up.

[Tactical Progressive]

50. They are cowards. They'll never change.

They spent eight years smearing the Clintons and Gore with lies and sneering innuendo. Smirking all the way, in print and on TV.

They've spent the last five years desperately trying to keep their heads down, reporting as little as possible of inconvenience about the powerful thugs that have co-opted America. And they're still getting pounded by the right. They don't understand that you can never satisfy the psychotic sanctimony of the right. Never.

Instead all they've done is lost the progressive heart of America, a group they should be at the forefront of. Now they're caught between the unquenchable hatred of the right, and decent people who have grown to thoroughly distrust and dislike them, and they just don't know what to do.

I don't even think they understand the problem. I don't think they know what they have become. They see themselves as victims. What they are is cowards and betrayers - betrayers of their profession, betrayers of their country, betrayers of simple moral integrity.

What they will try to do is become even more mewling and non-contentious of the right wing. CBS just showed that clearly. What will happen is that the right will smash them even harder, like any abuser who sees that the nastier he gets, the more he gets his way.

There are no Edward R. Murrow moments coming with this generation of corporate media whores. They have sold out the long history of their profession, and you shouldn't expect anything more than sporadic resistance to their ever-receding moral integrity. They have flushed themselves and all they can think to do is flush harder.

[blm]

53. The mainstream media won't carry this story. What a joke. They KNOW

they pretty up their mouths to make goo=goo eyes at Rove and yet they have the hubris to act affronted by their own willingness to kiss BushInc's ass.

[ConsAreLiars]

55. They spend a lifetime licking corporatist butt

and NOW discover they don't like the taste? Well, better late than never, I guess.

[Neecy]

56. hmmmm

I wonder who is pressuring Shapiro more...the Bush administration, or his corporate war-profiteering masters at General Electric.

And he wonders why we mistrust his 'products'!

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

57. They brought this upon themselves during the 2000 campaign.

The MSM listened to W's lies and bragging about his record and never challenged his veracity or followed up on his abysmal record. And all the time they proclaimed Gore was an exaggerator and unable to tell the truth. He wasn't really with the FEMA director in the helicopter, it was the Assistant FEMA director. The sighs and the eye-rolling were the only news they covered from the first debate.My blood still boils today.

Tim Russert turned into a whore the night of the 2000 election, sitting there with his stupid white board. And with Jack Welch, the head of GE and NBC, in the room. The almighty dollar speaks more than the truth.

And if I recall the NTY on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 ran their front page main story about the 2000 election results. They claimed W. really won, but at the end of the story, they mentioned the Gore over-votes, all 48,000 of them written in at the bottom of the Optical Scan paper votes. Those votes never got counted because those ballots were determined to be "spoiled". If they had looked at them as the Florida Sunshine Law requires, Gore would have been president. They never did a follow up story.

Maybe 911 might still have happened, but Gore would not have gone into Iraq. We could have saved this country it's respect, billions of dollars due to the war and *'s tax cuts, over 1500 dead soldiers and at least 160,000 Iraqi deaths.

The MSM failed the American people and we have collectively decided to obtain our information from the most reliable sources we can find.

Three words to the MSM "Go Cheney Yourself!"

[seabeyond]

59. impeachment is when they really let go of all journalistic

integrity

[in_cog_ni_to]

60. So true. They were like rabid dogs on the "Monica" story.

David Brock's book "Blinded By The Right" shows exactly how journalistic integrity flew out the window during the Clinton witch hunt. They've only gotten worse.

[TWiley]

62. Well, it is about time.

But, it irritates me that they "sound the alarm" because fascism has finally arrived on their doorstep.

They have applauded the criminal actions of the bustapo for far too long. Evidently, if they were not getting screwed, then there was no story to report.

[GetTheRightVote]

64. When they take up attacks on the * coup of America, I might listen to them

:kick: