...Perhaps the most bizarre journalistic decision was NBC News‘ choice (1/18/94) to assign Pete Williams, formerly assistant secretary of defense under President Bush, to cover the release of a report that makes serious charges of wrongdoing against Williams’ former employer. As chief spokesperson for the Pentagon during the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, Williams specialized in distortion and suppression of information. His January 18 reporting shows that he can perform the same function in the private sector.

Much of Williams’ coverage was taken up by a selective and slanted account of what the Walsh report didn’t prove about Reagan/Bush administration wrongdoing:

His report claims no proof that President Reagan authorized or knew of a scheme to take money from arms sales to Iran and give it to the Nicaraguan Contras. Or that Vice President Bush or Attorney General Meese knew of it either. And no evidence that Reagan authorized Lt. Col. Oliver North to set up the secret Contra-supply operation.

But Williams couldn’t find room to mention anything that Walsh said that Bush was culpable of, including lying to the public about his central role in the Iran arms sales, and withholding evidence from the inquiry. Also unmentioned by Williams were Walsh’s angry criticisms of Bush’s last-minute pardons. If Bush was watching NBC, he would have been proud to see how dedicated Williams was to protecting his ex-boss.

http://fair.org/extra/walsh-reports-scandalous-coverage/

Empires and Underdogs: Brazil's Media Story

Jul 15, 2016

It's a tough time for the Brazilian press. In the unfolding political drama around corruption and presidential impeachment, the mainly right-wing media is accused of deeply biased coverage and coup-mongering. Especially Globo, a giant network of TV and radio stations, newspapers, and magazines with a history that includes supporting the dictatorship.

While a corruption scandal makes huge headlines every day, trusted watchdogs are struggling to keep up at a time of newsroom cutbacks. But in Brazil, everything is complicated. Bob dives into why the country's concentrated media powers are so deeply distrusted -- and what's filling the vacuum.

With:
-Professor Maria Immacolata Vassallo de Lopes, of the Center for the Study of Telenovelas at the University of São Paulo
-Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist with Rio de Janeiro State University
-Diego Escoteguy, editor of the Globo-owned newsweekly, Epoca
-Tai Nalon, co-founder of the independent, crowdfunded fact-checking site Aos Fatos, "To the Facts”
-Patricia Campos-Mello, a reporter-at-large at Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest daily newspaper
-Eliane Goncalves, a reporter at the national public broadcaster, EBC
-Marcelo Rafael, chief reporter for EBC
-Political columnist Celso de Barros

http://www.wnyc.org/story/empires-and-underdogs

@nytimes

Sydney Schanberg, a former Times correspondent, has died at 82 http://nyti.ms/29DaX5Z

McCain and the POW Cover-Up

Thursday 18 September 2008
by: Sydney H. Schanberg, The Nation

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http://www.truthout.org/article/mccain-and-pow-cover-up

@vulture

Jennifer Lawrence has gone too long without an Oscar, joins Adam McKay’s Theranos film: http://vult.re/1XeLDaj

@CarlosLozadaWP

Trump's flag hug reminds me of the BOB ROBERTS poster. And Trump reminds me of that movie.

@Salon: Long before Lorne Michaels invited Trump to host, Horatio Sanz warned us about #SNL's "conservative bullsh*t" http://slnm.us/pLmnIW3

Horatio Sanz’s brutal “SNL” takedown: The show has too much “conservative bullsh*t” — and might have helped George W. Bush win the presidency

The "SNL" comedian speaks candidly about how the show has lost its way politically

After parting ways with “SNL” in 2006, comedian Horatio Sanz is ready to speak candidly about some of the show’s deep political flaws. (This time, without the risk of showrunner Lorne Michaels sending him to time-out.)

In “SNL’s” unaffiliated tell-all book “Live From New York” from 2014, Sanz did just that. And again, in a recent interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons, he opened up about how the show has lost its way in its quest to be “popular.” The comedian told Simmons that, “the message of the show has become less about these leftist politics and more about being popular.” ...

Sanz also singled out one particular “SNL” sketch — Kristen Wiig’s cold opening as Nancy Pelosi — which he felt epitomized the show’s weak political commentary. Referring to veteran writer Jim Downey’s (“the Karl Rove of SNL”) choice to include two men in S&M outfits (because — you know! — San Fran), Sanz said: “That’s what you get out of that story? That everyone in San Francisco is so weird that they’re wearing fucking leather and whipping each other.” ...

More here: link