So much for Voltaire.
Jan. 31st, 2003 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksAnti-War Ads Rejected During Bush Speech
I've grown increasingly frustrated with the media lately. While some reporters like Helen Thomas and Russell Mokhiber are still asking the hard questions, most everyone I see seems to be folding like the proverbial beach chair, all over the place.
Yesterday I watched a press conference with the Malaysian Prime Minister about the recent flap between Singapore and Malaysia about the supply of water and was completely appalled at how completely quiet the press seemed to be and how nobody seemed to be questioning the statements he was making. If I had been there and been allowed to speak I would have ripped him apart (metaphorically, of course). I know the media in the region is compliant and lap-dogish towards politicians, but the bullshit that was coming out of his mouth was so obvious I can't believe anyone would not have the questions or rebuttals in mind.
No politician should be comfortable during a press conference. They should be sweating, and the press should be snapping like a school of rabid piranhas. This should be a law of nature.
I'm seeing more and more articles criticizing the war, but none in the mainstream US media. Unless the US wants to end up with an East Asian brand of journalism, where the politicians dictate and the media disseminate and the analysis is zero, or as close as makes no difference, then more people like Thomas and Mokhiber are needed, and published.
And everyone needs to keep asking the right questions.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The Comcast cable television company rejected ads that an anti-war group wanted to air during President Bush's State of the Union speech, saying they included unsubstantiated claims.This is an example, of course, of the type of complete gutlessness that the mainstream media and its corporate masters has been showing in its treatment of Bush and his gang of thugs lately. Ultimately, I don't really blame them - if I had a government that could audit me at any time to try and find suspected links to terrorism (thank you, USA-PATRIOT), I'd be leery about pissing off the wrong people, too. Which is why laws like that shouldn't even make it on the books in the first place without very clear guidelines and safeguards.
Peace Action Education Fund had spent $5,000 to have six 30-second ads aired on CNN by Philadelphia-based Comcast beginning Tuesday night. During his speech, Bush was expected to reiterate his case for war.
The ads were to be broadcast in the Washington, D.C., area. But Comcast's legal department notified the group Tuesday morning that the ads would not air.
I've grown increasingly frustrated with the media lately. While some reporters like Helen Thomas and Russell Mokhiber are still asking the hard questions, most everyone I see seems to be folding like the proverbial beach chair, all over the place.
Yesterday I watched a press conference with the Malaysian Prime Minister about the recent flap between Singapore and Malaysia about the supply of water and was completely appalled at how completely quiet the press seemed to be and how nobody seemed to be questioning the statements he was making. If I had been there and been allowed to speak I would have ripped him apart (metaphorically, of course). I know the media in the region is compliant and lap-dogish towards politicians, but the bullshit that was coming out of his mouth was so obvious I can't believe anyone would not have the questions or rebuttals in mind.
No politician should be comfortable during a press conference. They should be sweating, and the press should be snapping like a school of rabid piranhas. This should be a law of nature.
I'm seeing more and more articles criticizing the war, but none in the mainstream US media. Unless the US wants to end up with an East Asian brand of journalism, where the politicians dictate and the media disseminate and the analysis is zero, or as close as makes no difference, then more people like Thomas and Mokhiber are needed, and published.
And everyone needs to keep asking the right questions.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Dream on...
That only happens in an Aaron Sorkin production.
Damn, but I wish we had a President Bartlett. Or even a President Shepard.
Re: Dream on...
Date: 2003-01-30 04:22 pm (UTC)No, I don't believe responsible journalism is a dream. It existed before, and it will exist again. Spider Jerusalem is too much to hope for. I'd settle for more Helen Thomases and more Russell Mokhibers
no subject
Date: 2003-01-30 05:12 pm (UTC)At least someone is asking the tough questions. But is anyone paying attention to the answers?