Boycott MSM. It's too disgusting! Reporters of conscience -- along with everybody else of conscience -- need to declare war on this misinformation shit.

The kind of questions asked by the Press corp. for the last 3 years has been a disgrace. I once read a comment, after one of the few bush’s press conference. It said that the press corp. should be put on a plane and push off over the Atlantic for all the news we were getting. We were spoon fed the same lies. I glad that some journalists recognize this problem now. How about starting to report the truth!

When will real journalists figure out that they don't need "acces" to be lied to, and start doing the hard analytical work of telling the truth? At this point, what is the value of "access"? The coin-of-the-journalist-realm is so debased in value that no one should care if they have it or not. Giving up the pretense of meaningful "access" would be a terrifically freeing discovery for professional journalists with a shred of self-respect left. Then maybe real journalism will re-emerge.
Charles

The value of access is that journalists are taught they must, and I mean must, have quotes from their sources or officials to make their story credible. If they don't have quotes to back up they storyline it must be false, since no one would provide a real quote for it outside of the realm of their heads. It helps demonstarte objectivity, in other words.

It's a nauseating crock these idiots have hid behind for years. Astute readers have already seen the huge whole in this reasoning: journalists accept quotes from "anonymous administration officials" or "officials who refuse to be indentified" all the fucking time.

So it's a quote but not really one. Either one of two things are happening here: an offical is trying to push an unpopular stance or tactic and is hiding from it, or is simply lying to the reporter.

I'm sick to death of all these horrible objectivity rules. They break them with impunity for those who want to lie to them anonimously, but grovel on their knees to any official just so they can get a quote sometime in the future.

I'm ranting but I don't give a flying fuck--it makes me so angry I could scream. All of my life I was taught that the truth was incredibly important, and I've paid an extremely high price for when I was so foolish not to revere the truth.

The Bush administration lies to kill our men yet that's just fine for the press. It's crushing everything that's good in this country, but those god damn whores just swallow the lies and facilitate the gross lying day after day while Bush just whistles. Fucking journalists--I hope they burn in hell forever.

Some of my heroes are still journalists, all right?

But...CBS. ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX...all propaganda whores who giddily cheered this country to our disastrous war in Iraq, and swallowed whole the theft of election 2000.

NTY's, WaPo...don't make laugh. Useless.

LA Times? Who the hell knows what they try to do. SF Chronicle? Please, it's a Hearst Newspaper. SJ Mercury? Barf--a rank Republican editor on a gutted staff.

It's horrible. These clowns couldn't print or broadcast the truth to save their lives. They can't even call Bush a liar, when he is sure the worst liar I have ever seen. Worthless whores, all of them.

You aren't ranting Paradox, your just telling the truth and it seems like ranting. This is what Bob Somerby does every day, and he'll never run out of material. The press will find itself when a Democrat is back in the WH. News has to be taken away from stockholders. The news business shouldn't be a business, but should become 501's, non-profits, now that corporate America has decided to take our democracy away from us. Until we change the way we get news it's going to be more of the same. How long will our democracy last as long as we get our news from GE, Disney, Viacom, Time-Warner, News Corp, Microsoft, The New York Times Company, The Washington Post Company, etc. and et al? "Journalists" want those six and seven figure incomes now like everyone else and all the perks that go with the territory. This is a serious issue, and it wasn't always like this. Those of us old enough to remember (57) can testify that CBS news was truly independent at one time as were the others. End the "person" corporate designation. Stop the corporate takeover of our country or this will only get worse.

Understandable, paradox. Rage to power.

A good analysis was done on Canadian Television. Watch the documentary if you get a chance. The stream also provides a model for a new jounalism free of the media whores.

"The press will find itself when a Democrat is back in the WH."

Sickeningly true, and only to the extent of serving as an arm of the RNC like in the GET CLINTON years.

WAKE UP CALL:

it's the media, dammit

Is it the media or the drones who believe it all? Did the media vote for Bush?

I guess we'll find out. The media we know isn't go to survive, not if I have anything to do with it. With these clownish propagandists gone we'll see if the citizenry of the United States will still happily believe the lies.

Has the age of "managed-democracy" - and one-party rule - already arrived?

Sharon, your link is outstanding...and the bleakest thing I've read in some time. It may already be over and were just hanging on, waiting for a change in the media that never comes. Fascism is complete in America. Go along or move along. I choose the latter.

Well, they haven't shut down the blogs or Buzzflash.com yet, Michael Moore hasn't been jailed, and Dean is the head of the DNC. A new day is coming, and the dumb-fucks on teevee are NOT in the majority, they just have the easiest way to spread their misguided message. I have hope that we'll soon figure out how to drown out the hatespeech of the righties with our community mindedness, showing that we are anti-poverty, pro-education, etc, etc. I have confidence in Dean. He seems like a straight shooter, and that he won't take shit from the pundits. What a switch from the roll over and die Dems I'm used to seeing. And Reid and Boxer, and Conyers and Tubbs Jones....

We need to try and find a way to play the game on our terms not $$$$ theirs $$$$. For now, the internet is the best and a growing alternate news source. We need it to be more reliable than other choices but I have no answers at this time.

A good read on the subject is "The New Media Monopoly" (7th edition) by Ben H. Bagdikian. Worth reading.

What the press seems to lack is understanding of their role. When this Administration doesn't need them anymore, they will become one of us. If they think they are the elite, they are misguided. They are being used just like all the others.

If taking the contrary position is a quality of "hard-hitting political journalism," then let's just say that some journalists and their organizations are a little better at it than others depending on who's in office.

Yes, big and rich corporations run Big Media, but the only ideology in effect is the money-making ethic. Contrarianism and muckraking make for good ratings and sales. It is a benefit-to-cost ratio these fat cats have already run past accounting.

Thus, rich and white and conservative companies stand behind Left-leaning anti-conservative news departments because they are using journalists disposed to think that way to give themselves ideological cover and political leverage.

It isn't the inconsistency that some of you imagine it to be.

So Bush is up big since the SOTU and elections in Iraq? So he's down again because of SS or whatever and someone lied to you and admitted to never having batted a .1000. Lots of cat and mouse and what the hell. Too many accidents of numbers. You can't be worshipping that nonsense all the time.

Other than the absense of contrarianism and left-leaning anti-conservative news departments, you're making some sense there Toby.

Because really what we have is a bunch of scared journalists, a bushel full of lazy or incompetent journalists, and a bunch of greedy journalistic cancers. And a precious few who've managed to retain some credibility, but who are one wrong step from falling by the wayside.

You see it every day, these journalists who operate with blinders, for one reason or another, who just do their copy and go home, unwilling or unable to do their stinkin job. And it shows, in the crappy fact checking, like those satellite photos of the same nuke reactor they said was in N Korea and Iran, and which they clearly knew were the same photo (else why did they change the sizing of the picture if not to try to hide it?), in the abjurious(?) manner they abuse the language, adjective after adjective, in the complete disregard displayed for truth and accuracy.

Judith Fucking Miller is still employed, and if that don't say something about the state of the media, what does?

US fights back against 'rule by clerics'
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Given the widespread Sunni boycott of Iraq's January 30 elections for a National Assembly, with voting concentrated among the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, the polls served more as a referendum to prove Shi'ite and Kurd strength.

This can be seen in the results of the polls released on Sunday, with the Shi'ite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance capturing 48% of the vote and the Kurdish alliance 26%.

Now it emerges that there is a strong movement in southern Iraq for the establishment of autonomous Shi'ite provinces as a precursor to introducing vilayet-e-faqih (rule by the clergy) in the whole country.

Of these calls for autonomy or federalism, the most disconcerting for US authorities is the call for religious rule. Already, leading Shi'ite clerics in Iraq are pushing for "Islam to be recognized as the guiding principle of the new constitution".

To head off this threat of a Shi'ite clergy-driven religious movement, the US has, according to Asia Times Online investigations, resolved to arm small militias backed by US troops and entrenched in the population to "nip the evil in the bud".

Asia Times Online has learned that in a highly clandestine operation, the US has procured Pakistan-manufactured weapons, including rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition, rockets and other light weaponry. Consignments have been loaded in bulk onto US military cargo aircraft at Chaklala airbase in the past few weeks. The aircraft arrived from and departed for Iraq.

The US-armed and supported militias in the south will comprise former members of the Ba'ath Party, which has already split into three factions, only one of which is pro-Saddam Hussein. They would be expected to receive assistance from pro-US interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord.

A military analyst familiar with strategic and proxy operations commented that there is a specific reason behind procuring arms from Pakistan, rather than acquiring US-made ones.

"A similar strategy was adopted in Afghanistan during the initial few years of the anti-USSR resistance [the early 1980s] movement where guerrillas were supplied with Chinese-made AK-47 rifles [which were procured by Pakistan with US money], Egyptian and German-made G-3 rifles. Similarly, other arms, like anti-aircraft guns, short-range missiles and mortars, were also procured by the US from different countries and supplied to Pakistan, which handed them over to the guerrillas," the analyst maintained.

The obvious reason for this tactic is to give the impression that the resistance acquired its arms and ammunition from different channels and from different countries - and anywhere other than the United States.

Asia Times Online contacts said it is clear that Pakistan would not be the only country from which the US would have procured arms. And such arms could not be destined for the Iraqi security forces because US arms would be given to them.

For the Americans, the situation in southern Iraq has turned into a double-edged sword. Iraqis there fully embraced the elections - even if they had to be convinced by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to do so - and this participation was welcomed as a sign of democracy taking root in the country.

But with Shi'ite religious parties emerging as the strongest power, no sooner were the elections over than voices were raised for the creation of an autonomous southern Iraqi region, and for vilayet-e-faqih .

People from different walks of life from Basra and other southern provinces can be heard on television and radio channels demanding a federal system in which southern Shi'ites could govern their oil resources for their benefit.

Notably, Ahmad Chalabi, a leading secular Shi'ite candidate in the Iraqi elections, has called for autonomy for the Shi'ite south, which contains some of the world's largest oil fields. Chalabi, a former US favorite who fell out with Washington after the 2003 invasion, said the move would ensure a fairer share of wealth for a region that provides the bulk of Iraqi revenue but receives only a fraction of state spending. The mainly Shi'ite southern provinces of Amara, Nasiriya and Basra are Iraq's poorest, Chalabi said.

Observers say this is the beginning of a new era which could climax in a movement for vilayet-e-faqih , a compulsory part of the Shi'ite faith that is intertwined with the concept of imamat or leadership (all Muslims under one leader). The difference between a caliph and an imam is that a caliph can be anyone accepted by Muslims, but an imam must hail from the Prophet Mohammed's family and be a recognized religious authority (clergy).

Already, members of the Da'wa Party, many of whom were taught in Iran, have taken over mosques in Basra, and members of Hezbollah have heavily infiltrated the Shi'ite population, in addition to Iranian intelligence and members of the Pasdaran-i-Inqalab (Iran's Revolutionary Guards) to pave the way for vilayet-e-faqih.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online.

Still droning about the media being "right-wing" I see.....

Come on, are you really trying to say, and with a straight face, that all the US media is right-wing.
For starters there's the New York Times where not a day goes by without a hail of pessimism, negativity and cynical comments about Iraq, and the failiure of the Bush administration, and how bad we are to those poor, victimized terrorist psycos . Thats right the ones who threatened anyone who votes with death, and these are the people yousay are looking out for the iraqi people and are fighting against the occupiers!!! In that case answer me two questions -
1> Since when have the 60% of the population of Iraq been "occupiers".
2> Since when has killing civilians been "looking out for them" .Still think they're "freedom fighters??? Didn't think so!!!

Anyway got sidetracked a bit there, thats just the NY Times, complete with toffee nosed, champagne socialist new yorkers spittle sprayed allover the letters page (basically the editorials words rearranged, with a little more pessimism added to the mix to give it that bit more bitterness).

Then we have the liberal reporter all-stars on every news channel from CNN downwards (downwards meaning spiraling to the depths of the sewer that is the media circus)..... oh exept for Fox, but surely the right are allowed to have one aren't they??? No ??? You greedy swine!!!
Then as if thats not enough we have all ofthose cool little magazines and "entertainment shows" featuring Pop and Movie stars .... all who appear to not have a clue what they're rambling on about when discussing political issues, and sometimes you have to wonder if the entire of Hollywood owns one single braincell amonst it's gold-digging, stuck-up, ignorant , loathsome , reptilian inhabitants. Their views are left-wing (supposedly the political leaning of the working class), yet they're all filthy rich and probably don't even know where Iraq is, or their only knowledge of it strecthes to a nice beach they once visited there. This lack of knowledge is astronomically evident in their sickeningly substance-free, and retarded views to quote Chrissie Hynes: "We deserve to be bombed , bring it one.... I hope the muslims win...." Or Danny Glover : " The War on terror is a racist war, all americas war have been against coloured people ." (including the nazis and the serbs eh Danny??? you ignorant twat!!!).
These people abuse the priveledge of their high public status to express their meaningless views, the most sickening thing being, these morons are idolized by kids and teens across the world, whoprobably agree with their opinions because they starred in one of their favourite movies, rather than because their is any accuracy to what they're saying.

Liberals have got it all media wise, sodon't give me that shit.

Someone help Ricardo. Oh yeah, he's too far gone already, I see. What a hopeless place his head resides in.

Can I get a "what liberal media" amen?

Amen, Yuval. It's getting so bad that you can't even have a comments section on a progressive blog without getting some Republic kimchee shoved up your a$$...

When the New York Times (host to Judith Miller's front page regurgitating of Ahmed Chalabi talking points) and the Conservative News Network (host to Wolf, Aaron Brown, and a raging horde of conservative spinbots) are being spun as liberal news organizations, NBC hires a Rush Limbaugh admirer as their anchor, and Faux News can still use the phrase Fair and Balanced, it is a dark time for us all.

What liberal media?

Come on, are you really trying to say, and with a straight face, that all the US media is right-wing.

Look at how the media went after Clinton, a blow-job liar, and how they have not gone after Bush on desertion, drunk driving, forcing his girlfriend to get an abortion, swapping religion like socks, driving everything he owned into bancruptcy, slaughtering the environment, nepotism and cronyism beyond all belief, using fake numbers and outright lies to sell an agenda, being a traitor for dealing oil with Iraq during Gulf War I, etc.

I don't give a rats ass if the media is left or right. What I do want is media as independent as possible from big corporations, and that has an adversarial relationship with the government, whoever is in charge.

Instead, what we get is the media Kim Il Jong has. Fuckhead plants nodding up and down, telling the chimporer how nice his new clothes look.

My God, you don't have to go any further than "Lionel" Annie Coulter to know there is a real problem.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it Bush who said about the media, "some call you the elite, but I call you my base"?

judith, he wasn't referring to the media, he was referring to his donors, in his words: "the haves and the have-mores"

Oh Bushy said the media is a filter, wah wah wah, so he'll take it straight to the people and have his little town halls where all the participants are screened. When he was he was here at the Detroit Economic Club recently, he wouldn't take questions even though that's the usual format. He couldn't screen the participants I guess. No Gannon/Guckerts here.

Sharon,

Don't ya know Bush had a 'cowboy' discussion in Detriot, it works just like 'cowboy' diplomacy: He talks, others listen!

Hey rlprather, was your spelling of DetRIOT a typo? Maybe we're in the lull before the storm. I think much more of Bush and we won't be the only ones in the street!!!

Sharon, it was a typo. I don't claim to be a prophet. I hope it wasn't 'the spirit' moving in me!

Benjoya, thanks. That's right. I had forgotten.