26
Apr
Bill Moyers Presses The Press To Tell The Truth–Yes!
IN PRAISE OF BILL MOYERS
GEORGE MCGOVERN: CHENEY WORSE THAN NIXON
DEBT WATCH—MORE PAIN, LOSS, MISERY
Hats off to Bill Moyers for joining the investigation into why our media bought the Kool Aid for the Iraq War and served as a transmission belt for misinformation, lies and innuendos that helped persuade the American people that a war on Iraq as needed and justified.
As one of our leading TV journalists, Moyers has played an indispensable role in raising issues that his colleagues ignore and probing behaviors that go unexamined on other outlets. While PBS was putting money and airtime to the service of unreconstructred Neo-con hawks, or should we say warmonrgers like Richard Perle, he was able to find private money to return to the airwaves with the kind of independent journalism that is sorely needed in this time of war and empire.
While many of the claims for invading Iraq were concocted as message points as part of an elaborate strategy of information warfare aimed at the American people, and have already been exposed and refuted, it is still important to understand how such bogus propaganda was taken as fact by journalists who claim to be skeptical and, dare I say, objective.
We have to ask ourselves why Jim Lehrer’s News Hour on PBS didn’t forefully challenge this narrative when it needed challenging? Ditto for the rest of the wisemen and pundits who Canadian critics properly labeled “Warheads,” not talking heads.
That being said, it is still somewhat upsetting to see so many mainstream outlets lathering praise on Moyers’ show when they ignored or slammed my book EMBEDDED: Weapons of Mass Deception, scrutinizing the TV coverage in 2003 when the invasion phase of the war was underway. (The book was first published online In the summer of 2003, one of the first books on the media and the Iraq War.) Other authors like John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton showed how PR techniques seduced and infiltrated what claimed to be journalism.
And then there was my film WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) out in 2004. I couldn’t initially get any funding for it nor find any network interested in it. The big papers like The Washington Post scoffed no doubt because after all, who was I, a relative “nobody,” to question the collusive role of my “betters” and colleagues. In a second book I wrote on the subject, WHEN NEWS LIES, I detailed my experience in getting attention paid to these issues and argued that this was not just a matter of media mistakes, but actual COMPLICITY.
I suggested that there was a PATTERN of coverage that rose to the level of war crimes and that they should be punished accordingly, the way the perpetrators of hate radio were jailed in Rwanda. Clearly this is not a thought that all the big brains and know-it-alls in the mainstream want to take seriously.
(There are now many films on the subject including one by Norman Solomon I haven’t seen, and one shown at Sundance, that I hear is great. Also, Independent Intervention and Amy Goodman’s film comes to mind.
In a celebrified culture, you need a “name” to be taken seriously. But if I didin’t have the impact I felt WMD desrved, it was seen by the people who enthusiastically endorsed the film in 39 countries. I’m glad that Bill Moyers is having more of an impact in an industry that basically doesn’t want to hear it, or acknowledge its lapses and blindness as a problem, but keeps on with business as usual.
In his new book, DEBUNKING 911 DEBUNKING, to which I will return , David Ray Griffin makes comments on distorted coverage of 911 that can as easily be applied to the coverage of the war. He writes about the ignorance of the American public, explaining:
“The blame for this ignorance rests more on the mainstream press, from most Americans still get most of their information about national and international issues…an issue cannot become part of the public discussion in this country unless it is covered by the mainstream press.”
MORE ON MOYERS; WAR LIES AND COMPLIANT MEDIA
CAR BOMBERS AND THE WHITE HOUSE
MIKE DAVIS: Both Iraq’s car bombers and the White House see the Shia resurgence and Iran as the main enemies
Worse Than Nixon : Cheney Is Wrong About Me, Wrong About War
By George S. McGovern
It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972.
DEBT WATCH (Thanks to SB Kayser)
Spain’s Property Stock Drop on Concern Bubble Burst (Update2)
By Alexis Xydias and Sharon Smyth
April 24 (Bloomberg) — Spanish real-estate and bank stocks tumbled on concern the country’s property boom is imploding.
and meanwhile Wall Street is rallying??!!!
Subprime Bondholders May Lose –>>> $75 Billion
Danger! Stock market partying like it’s March 2000
SEC Being Charged With Negligence In Mortgage Industry
Writing tonight from Cleveland. Plane Delayed. Late Have to be Brief. Speak tomorrow at a community College and then back. Last trip for awhile. (Until the next one)
Thanks for your patience.
Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
How do you expect to force the press to tell the truth when they select only what to their mind are “Politically correct” news items because they think they are more “Intelligent” then the general public who must not be allowed to make up their own mind what is important news, and what is not?
April 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pmCase in point. While persecuting, and sesationalizing, the falsely accused, and totally innocent, Duke Lacrosse team for a year, the “Press” totally ignored the terrible atrocities committed against Channon Christian, and Christopher Newsom, in Knoxville on 1/6 - 1/8/2007 by five animals who are convicted felons. Go to youbetube.com and type Hush 2316 in the search bar. If this was not “NATIONAL” news I can not imagine what would be!
Dude. This is a great blog but you should test you links before you hit that publish button - all the links to other websites do not work.
April 26th, 2007 at 1:41 pmMy darling Danny: I love you even though you are so bitter. Examine your work and table manners, dear heart. Love always, your Catherine
April 26th, 2007 at 2:38 pmDanny - as usual you are one of the few who actually cares about the us in USA. Moyers special was great & I look forward to tomorrow’s appearance with Jon Stewart, who I had to stay up until midnite here in Montana to catch last nite, and not a peep on Jon’s show about Moyers’ heroic and historic broadcast. (I couldn’t believe Mr. Moyers even showed peace activists marching - what a concept!!!) Imagine - here in the Bush-whacked nation…Hats off to the Knight Ridder crew - please interview and cover them - plus you should be covered by Moyers as well. Let’s all get together and int’w each other - as the Knight Ridder reporter said, only c-span asked to int’w him, we must pick up the slack amongst ourselves and pronto. Love and Respect & Truth, Melinda of the Melinda Show public access cable magazine, time/warner, Los Angeles.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:59 pmMoyer’s show last night was EXCELLENT. I am so glad that he’s back on the air after the neocons forced him into retirement. Moyers is an example of what a journalist is supposed to be. Let’s hope his program wakes the MSM journalists up from their 6 year old slumber!
April 26th, 2007 at 6:28 pmGreetings again, Danny; while you wondered why your ‘Embedded’ didn’t get the reception Moyers’ return got, I wondered whether he deserved it at all. I love Bill, and beside his devotion to LBJ’s hateful administration, believe his has been the moral and ethical high road, relatively speaking, I found his report disturbing.
When talking about the vital days leading to war and the voices excluded from the debate, Moyers did finally get around to mentioning Scott Ritter, he did only that. One short sentence, mentioning his name and opposition to the claim’s, but no context for the ‘man with hair on fire’ imprecations to the world to reject the Bush administration claims on Weapons of Mass Destruction from the beginning.
Instead of calling 60 Minutes on their long silences on the war, something millions were marching through the cities of the world to punctuate BEFORE the first shots were fired, Bob and Bill gee whizzed at the perfidy of it all, as if this was breaking news!
And what about 9/11’s role in all this?
There were moments Bill Moyers’ Journal were I did say, “Thank Christ, somebody’s finally said it!” But then, that’s not accurate: Sure, it was being said on PBS, but six years too late. What about now, and what’s next?
The fact is: America’s wars, regardless of how they are interpreted by the media, or political opertives, is a crime. Whether that crime, this great crime against humanity, was badly pulled off is irrelevant; it must be ended immediately, its authors tried, and its horrible effects mitigated as best as can be possibly managed. Now.
Perhaps Bill’s next chapters will address some of these questions more completely. I certainly hope so; but more, I hope Bill Moyers return signals not only as shaming example to the networks and big dailies, but as an opening other authentic journalists can squeeze through.
cheers
April 27th, 2007 at 1:13 amchris
mullah cimoc say usa media not free. moyers him afraid for speak the true words most important of this subject:
in pashtu this word neocon (nikan)
meaning “israeli spy in white house and pentagon”.
when not say these words him story one big lying.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:07 amPlease fix link:
Worse Than Nixon : Cheney Is Wrong About Me, Wrong About War
By George S. McGovern
April 30th, 2007 at 11:05 amI agree with Free Speech Advocate
“Hats off to the Knight Ridder crew”
There is no credibility in any corporate owned news service - how could there be? We need many independent news sources. Luckily you can “root out” stories on the internet, but its alot of work.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am