Interesting column in the WaPost today- Assault On the Media

[Lone_Star_Dem]

It's not a bad write up on what happened to Newsweek. I was surprised they ran it, it's a worthy read.

It begins by mentioning the FBI reports from Guantanamo Bay and the documented mistreatment of the Koran. He even touches on the fact that the Pentagon admitted to minor mistreatment of the Koran.

Then once he's warmed up he really begins to unload on the state of the media and the White House's involvement.

Assault On the Media
By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Friday, May 27, 2005; Page A27

<snip>
The war on Newsweek shifted attention away from how the Guantanamo prisoners have been treated, how that treatment has affected the battle against terrorism and what American policies should be. Newsweek-bashing also furthered a long-term and so far successful campaign by the administration and the conservative movement to dismiss all negative reports about their side as the product of some entity they call "the liberal media."
<snip>

But this particular anti-press campaign is not about Journalism 101. It is about Power 101. It is a sophisticated effort to demolish the idea of a press independent of political parties by way of discouraging scrutiny of conservative politicians in power. By using bad documents, Dan Rather helped Bush, not John Kerry, because Rather gave Bush's skilled lieutenants the chance to use the CBS mistake to close off an entire line of inquiry about the president. In the case of Guantanamo, the administration, for a while, cast its actions as less important than Newsweek's.

Back when the press was investigating Bill Clinton, conservatives were eager to believe every negative report about the incumbent. Some even pushed totally false claims, including the loony allegation that Clinton aide Vince Foster was somehow murdered by Clinton's apparatchiks when, in fact, Foster committed suicide. Every journalist who went after Clinton was "courageous." Anyone who opposed his impeachment or questioned even false allegations was "an apologist."
<snip>

When the press fails, it should be called on the carpet. But when the press confronts a politically motivated campaign of intimidation, its obligation is to resist -- and to keep reporting.
More...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/26/AR2005052601538.html

[necso]

1. Nice piece. /nt

[MADem]

2. The attack on Newsweek was the chimp's bridge too far

He really thought they would roll over and be cowed, but the slothful scribes finally realized that, without provocation and with ruthless vigor, they could be next.

It is what we have been saying for half a decade or more, they finally woke up and smelled the damn coffee!

[Lexingtonian]

3. funny how

when a popular Administration bullies the press for too long, the press toadies... and it waits until that Administration is unpopular enough to then just unload on them, when that begins to sell papers.

Victims of their own success, I'd tell Scottie McClellan. No wonder Arie Fleischer got out of town and is scooping up the last bits of cash out there for him (aka book tour).