The media fall out from Iraq
Writing by abuhatem on Thursday, 29 of May , 2008 at 7:28 pm
Just a few days after the Project for Excellence in Journalism released a study on cable news coverage of the Iraq war, as well as the American Journalism Review report, Scott McClellan has written a book criticizing the “propaganda campaign” of the Bush administration and the media’s horrible coverage of the Iraq war. Two big news anchors - CBS’ Katie Couric, and CNN’s Jessica Yellin criticized the absolutely dismal coverage before the run up to war in Iraq.
To be sure, both are not the first. Walter Cronkite who called it “shameful,” Dan Rather, and others have criticized the pre-war coverage. Phil Donnahue’s show was canceled, and PBS’ Bill Moyers did an entire documentary special about the case for war called “Buying the War” which can be seen here.
We absolutely have a free press, (semi)-free markets, and thus not all the media is to blame. The “news” part of the war was not false, the Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, United Press International, and Knight Ridder (now McClatchy) and other news wire services were providing true news. Reporting blatantly false and fabricated news will eventually get you in trouble from competitors and consumers in the market. It was not the news or newswires which were offbase, it was primarily the TV networks’ opinion talk shows and the journalism in some newspapers (such as the leftist NYTimes’ Judith Miller who did fabricate stories and did get in trouble).
Only two newspapers - The Christian Science Monitor and Knight Ridder Newspapers were continually printing material against the administration’s claims. CSPAN and PBS’ NewsHour were not 100% on board with the war. And the McLaughlin Group’s Pat Buchanan was a strong critic of the war (which he called “the war for Israel”). But for the most part, times of crisis increase government power, and the government pressured journalists to cover the war their way. When Bob Novak wrote column after column opposing the war, the President forbade him access. This was the punishment to those who didn’t toe the government line.
Years later, with the war unpopular and a disaster, the media has generally been much more critical of the administration’s claims. Yet Scott McClellan was right, the media in the run up to war was less than critical.
Jessica Yellin said, according to the Politico:
“And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president’s approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time….”
But then a shocked Cooper jumped in, asking, “You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?”
“Not in that exact…. They wouldn’t say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces,” Yellin said.
Katie Couric called it the media’s “most embarrassing” time and described “corporate pressure” as the source.
To be sure, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, NBC’s David Gregory, and many others dismissed the remarks saying they think they did a good job although it could have been a lot better.
Being an avid TV news viewer during the Iraq war, I can only say that Fox News (which goes without question) and MSNBC’s coverage truly was the most biased. Phil Donnahue, Katie Couric, and Jessica Yellin who all worked at MSNBC strongly have criticized the network’s Iraq coverage. Now with MSNBC moving closer and closer to being a liberal left-wing alternative to Fox, things have only changed slightly, but with Chris Matthews’ random stupid remarks during the presidential race it is obvious that MSNBC is the least professional of all the cable networks.
CNN did a much better job both in coverage and in bias. CNN had some “hard news” reporters on such as Aaron Brown’s NewsNight, Christiane Amanpour and Nic Robertson who were a little more balanced. Yet they too failed.
I am very glad that McClellan has let the cat out of the bag and begun this self-realization by the media of their big blunders. If anything, it has without doubt improved the medias coverage especially in 2007-2008 from the strong biases that existed back in early 2002-2003. As an avid TV news and newspaper fan, I am glad the medium of the internet has come in and challenged the TV networks formerly shallow coverage. The Associated Press piece reports:
“It’s a great day for the American public that finally, after five years of such well-documented criticisms of the media’s failure … to see them finally having to come clean and do a self-examination,” Cohen said.
“The irony is that it’s one of the Bush prevaricators that is forcing it,” he said.
Five years later, Donahue’s former time slot is filled by Keith Olbermann, who has drawn attention for his sharp commentaries against the Bush administration.
From the other side of the podium, McClellan offered criticism of the media’s performance. He said reporters were “complicit enablers” by covering the preparations for war instead of more aggressively questioning the need for it.
Category: The media
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
