Kurtz, Wash. Post: "Hiding the Bad News" (Iraq)

[DeepModem Mom]

The complaint is well known by now: The media are too negative, too biased, too blind to see that the US of A is making good progress in the conflict zone known as Iraq.

The White House has hammered home that message in recent weeks. And each time it seems to be gaining any traction, there's another military tragedy in Baghdad, such as Sunday's downing of a Chinook helicopter, killing 16 soldiers.

But even as journalists insist they have too reported on gains in electricity and education for ordinary Iraqis, a larger question emerges:

When the Bushies say they want the bad news put in perspective, do they really mean they don't want it reported at all?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61774-2003Nov4.html

[annxburns]

1. Holy crap ....

.... King Media Whore is saying this? What, did he discover that his soul is missing? What happened? Did the carnage and bloodshed get to him? Did that medic that was ABC NEWS saying "Mission accomplished - Yeah, right" ping his now defunct sense of morality?

I'm sure tomorrow he will give Bush a big ass-kiss to make up for it

[dennis4868]

2. I saw the Meda Whore's TV Show

on Sunday on CNN and once again he had to talk about Clinton's penis....will it ever stop?

[saigon68]

11. How is Clintons Member--- related to murders of children in IRAQ?

I guess I've seen it all

The public are sheep

BAAA BAAA

[JNelson6563]

3. From Howie-the-Whore?!?!?!?

Words fail me....

:wow:

[Hand]

5. Howie, as usual...

Is about thirty miles behind the curve. That smug, scummy sycophant wouldn't be saying any of this is REAL journalists hadn't paved the way and laid down a plush carpet so he wouldn't have to soil his tender tootsies.

Asshole--you know, if you read his column (which nobody should, but...), you discover that here's a guy who's built a lucrative "journalistic" career by cutting and pasting everybody else's work. Nice work if you can get it.

[JNelson6563]

6. you are so right

Howie's a red-carpet guy, doesn't like to soil his tootsies.

I urge everyone to forward this on to their local papers. Mine has a little place on their web-site where you can submit a blurb-like LTE up to three senteces long.

Not long ago I submitted a blurb that said:

This is an excellent column by a conservative about the pre-Iraq-war intelligence: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34930

That was all I wrote after submitting the required local town I was from. They did not print my blurb.

They printed the WHOLE ARTICLE a few days later, in the Sunday edition's opinion/editorial section (B). Big as day, over half a page, no breaks for ads or anything!! They even upgraded (IMO) the headline from Yes, Bush Lied to Plain and simple, the president lied!!! I could NOT believe my eyes!!

Do it! Pass it on!! You just might be surprised at the results!!

Julie

[PlanetBev]

12. You nailed it, Hand

These spineless maggots like Howie only come out of their caves if it looks safe. They wait around to see which way the winds blows before they'll say the obvious. They have a pack mentality and it will never change. When we've finally lost our Democracy, they'll sit around and analyze the disaster that's befallen us, wondering why it happened and who to blame. Bastards...

[MissMarple]

14. Maybe Republicans would call him a canary.

:evilgrin:

A reverse sort of canary.

[Hand]

15. So did you...

"Spineless maggots"... I like it!

:yourock: :yourock:

[TacticalPeek]

4. Maybe he thought KKKarl was ignoring him,

because he's sure to get a call today.

[goforit]

7. The public is seeingthe WH for what they are!!!

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

They can't spin war blasts this time!!!

It must be Clinton's fault!!!

[UpInArms]

8. did you notice this paragraph?

"It is almost impossible for a journalist to talk to any official from the authority without getting the approval of a public information officer. Recently, when an army major and the head of operations of an American agency here sought to take a reporter for coffee at the Rashid Hotel, where senior American personnel live and eat, a sentry told them that no reporter could enter the hotel without an escort from the press office. The American officials were more astonished than the reporter.

does this not sound like this?

http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2003/gulf03/gulf03.html

from: New York, February 25, 2003

The dozens of reporters and photojournalists now hunkered down in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, face a familiar gauntlet of restrictions. For years, foreign journalists have chafed at tight limits imposed by Iraqi authorities. Government "minders" shadow journalists and inhibit reporting, and Saddam Hussein's notorious police state brooks no dissent in the state-controlled media.

or this?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-02-09-saddam-cover_x.htm

Posted 2/9/2003 4:24 PM

Government censors accompany every visiting journalist. And it is difficult to get an accurate gauge of the people's feelings. But everywhere are indications that the truth may be different.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. You're right -- the press again has "minders"? n/t

[damnraddem]

10. Well,

duh!

[chromotone]

13. remarkable comment...

" 'I have come to hate the media,' a senior aide to L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the occupational authority in Iraq, wrote in a recent e-mail message to family and friends. 'I have worked in politics for a while and I have always, ALWAYS given them the benefit of the doubt. But, I simply cannot continue to sit here and say, "Oh well, they will turn around eventually and get the story straight." '

"The 'straight story' the journalists are not reporting, she said, is the progress that has been made here in the last six months."

What progress?

Bush said we were invading Iraq because of "weapons of mass destruction." Where are they? Where are the tons of gas, chemicals, and pathogens that Bush said Sadaam had and was ready to unleash on the US?

At no time in the SOTU address did Bush say anything about invading Iraq and killing its citizens in order to rebuild schools, bridges, and hospitals.

No WMDs, therefore no progress. Plain and simple.