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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/24/AR2007042402444.htmlA Media Role in Selling the War? No Question.
By Tom Shales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 25, 2007; Page C01
.... In this 90-minute report, called "Buying the War," Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes use alarming evidence and an array of respected journalists to make the case that, in the rage that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the media abandoned their role as watchdog and became a lapdog instead. ....
Moyers does not set out to attack anyone himself; instead he tries to find out why journalists -- electronic and print -- behaved in ways that are supposed to be anathema to a free press in a free nation. The show asks: Did the Bush administration benefit from having an effective collection of accomplished dupers -- a contingent that Washington Post investigative reporter Walter Pincus calls "the marketing group" -- or did the outrage of 9/11 made the press more vulnerable to being duped?
Pressures subtle and blatant were brought to bear. Phil Donahue's nightly MSNBC talk show was virtually the only program of its type that gave antiwar voices a chance to be heard. Donahue was canceled 22 days before the invasion of Iraq, Moyers says. The reason was supposedly low ratings, but the New York Times intercepted an in-house memo in which a network executive complained: "Donahue represents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. At the same time, our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity." ....
Tim Russert, of NBC's "Meet the Press," looks intimidated by Moyers and somewhat unnerved by his questions, but at least he agreed to be interviewed. Among those who declined -- and thus became a part of the story more than they already were -- are Judith Miller of the New York Times, a reporter who became a relentless drumbeater for war; Times pundit William Safire, who'd predicted that Iraqis would welcome Americans as liberators when they marched into Baghdad; columnist Charles Krauthammer, another hawkish columnist who's usually anything but camera-shy; and Fox boss Roger Ailes. ...
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0716,hagey,76404,2.htmlAnother Imus in the Mourning?
CBS comes very near replacing a barnacle with a Barnicle
by Keach Hagey
April 17th, 2007 1:04 PM
.... When Imus was merely suspended (before his firing last Thursday), CBS's boneheaded first move was to tap Barnicle to fill in. A longtime Imus guest, friend, and joke-lifter, Barnicle made headlines as recently as 2004 for mocking a black woman on the air.
Talking about the marriage of former secretary of defense William Cohen (who is white) and his wife, Janet Langhart (who is black), Barnicle remarked, "Yeah. I know them both. Bill Cohen. Janet Langhart. Kind of like Mandingo."
Protests from the NAACP and others resulted in a 17-minute on-air self-flagellation by Barnicle. But he wasn't the first to liken Cohen-Langhart to master-slave. Imus (naturally) did it in 2000. But no one expected originality from Barnicle, who was run out of the Boston Globe newsroom in 1998, after a 25-year career as a columnist, for lifting jokes from George Carlin. ....
All that furor over Barnicle is widely known, especially in press circles, which is why it was such a head-scratcher that CBS considered—even for a second—trying to attach a Barnicle to its sinking ship.
The idea apparently came from Boston CBS station WTKK. Station management won't talk about it, but Leonard Atkins, the Boston NAACP president who took Barnicle to task in 2004, gives WTKK's relatively new management the benefit of the doubt. "Unless you are familiar with the history around the personnel," says Atkins, "you are bound to fall into these kinds of situations." ....
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