The Canonization of St. Tim

Alexander Cockburn, The Nation, reports:

"The delirium in the press at Tim Russert's passing has been strange. As a broadcaster he was not much better than average, which is saying very little. He could be a sharp questioner, but not when it really counted and when courage was required. He was tough with George Bush in a February 2004 interview. He taxed him with faking the reasons to attack Iraq. But in the years before the 2003 attack, I used to hear Russert being merciless to those questioning whether Saddam Hussein had the nukes and bioweapons alleged by the Bush Administration and its co-conspirators in the press, prominent among them Russert himself...."

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Photo credit: Tim Russert. www.centre.edu

Technorati tags: Tim Russert, The Nation, Media, Journalism, News

TAKE ACTION: Demand Quality Journalism

Freepress, in reaction to last night's so-called Presidential debate, is taking action. You can help:

Watch the lowlights from last night’s debate on ABC. Sick of this junk news? Take Action Now

"I'm outraged about last night's presidential debate on ABC, and you should be too.

ABC dedicated the entire first half of the debate to recycling the same junk news stories about the candidates' personalities and past associations that have been circulating endlessly in recent weeks.

At a time when we are facing life and death decisions about health care, war, climate change and the economy, ABC went for fluff and innuendo. No wonder so many people are misinformed or don’t pay attention to politics.

Last night made a mockery of this election and gave us a stark view of Big Media's impact on our democracy.

We have to do something. Instead of just switching channels, we need to demand better media.

Tell ABC: We Want Quality Journalism, Not Junk News

Media is the lifeblood of our democracy. But as our media falls into fewer and fewer hands, real journalism is being replaced by cheap infotainment and rank sensationalism. Newsrooms are being squeezed, foreign bureaus have been shuttered, and serious issues are simply ignored.

We can do more than just throw open the window and scream, "We're not gonna take it anymore."

Last night's debate is just a symptom of a much more serious sickness afflicting our media system. The root of this problem is bad policies that let Big Media companies like Disney -- which owns ABC -- get so big. It's up to Congress and the FCC to roll back media consolidation.

But it's moments like this that wake people up to the dire state of the media. Help spread the word.

Tell Your Friends: Support Quality Journalism

We deserve better media; we need better media. Let's hold ABC and Disney accountable -- and fight for media that we can count on."

Onward,

Josh Silver

Executive Director

Free Press

www.freepress.net

P.S. Get connected and help spread the word. Join us on Facebook.

P.P.S. Missed the debate? Read Tom Shales’ review, “In Pa. Debate, the Clear Loser is ABC.”

 

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Take action on this important campaign at:
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Tell your friends about this campaign at: http://free.convio.net/site/Ecard?ecard_id=1361

Note: Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Free Press does not endorse or oppose any candidate for public office

Also See:

• Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos Lose Debate | The Progressive

  "What a painful debate to watch! Where is Dennis Kucinich when you need him? At least Kucinich dared to point out how off base the “moderators” were in some of the debates he was in...."

• Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: "Screw 'Em" | The Huffington Post

  "During the past week, Sen. Hillary Clinton has presented herself as a working class populist, the politician in touch with small town sentiments, compared to the elitism of her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.
  
  But a telling anecdote from her husband's administration shows Hillary Clinton's attitudes about the "lunch-bucket Democrats" are not exactly pristine...."

Technorati tags: media, News, Presidential Debate, Primaries, ABC, Activism

Working the Truth Beat

By Bob Herbert
The New York Times

The initial feeling is shock, and then comes anger, the anger bursting through even before the inevitable sadness sets in.

Two people whom I respected a great deal were killed — one of them insanely and the other absurdly — in the past three weeks.

Julia Campbell was a friend from several years back who had worked as a freelancer at The Times and a number of other media outlets before joining the Peace Corps and going off to the Philippines. I was watching the news on television about a week and a half ago when her photo came on the screen. The story said that she had been reported missing.

A couple of days later the news came that she had been murdered. The authorities have arrested a man who said he bludgeoned her to death with a rock after she accidentally bumped into him.

I remember once when we were hanging out, shooting the breeze about some horror in the news, Julia said to me, “Why is the world the way it is?” She added quickly, as though embarrassed: “I know it’s a ridiculous question. But I wonder.”

David Halberstam died in the most ordinary of ways, like Camus, in the kind of car crash that is such an everyday occurrence it never warrants a second look unless the victim is a celebrity or someone we know.

David and I weren’t close, but we got along well. He was always exceptionally kind to me, very generous with sources and advice, and funny as hell with stories from his legendary past. It’s a cliché, but he was a larger-than-life figure, a big, distinguished-looking man with a carefully cultivated baritone voice and a touch of pomposity that was tempered by a look in his eye and a hint of a smile that let you know that he knew exactly what he was doing.

He was among the very best reporters I’ve ever known.

If there was one thing above all else that David taught us, it was to be skeptical of official accounts, to stay always on guard against the lies, fabrications, half-truths, misrepresentations, exaggerations and all other manifestations of falsehood that are fired at us like machine-gun bullets by government officials and others in high places, often with lethal results.

“You have to keep digging,” he would say, “keep asking questions, because otherwise you’ll be seduced or brainwashed into the idea that it’s somehow a great privilege, an honor, to report the lies they’ve been feeding you.”

On the day after David was killed, a Congressional committee in Washington held a public hearing to explore the extraordinary lies concocted by the government to describe the killing of Cpl. Pat Tillman, a former N.F.L. football player, in Afghanistan, and the capture of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in the very early days of the war in Iraq.

Corporal Tillman was killed by an American soldier in a friendly-fire incident. Instead of telling the truth, the military created an account in which Corporal Tillman, exhibiting extreme bravery, was cut down by enemy fire.

Pat Tillman’s younger brother, Kevin, appalled at what the government had done, told the committee how the corporal had been publicly praised and posthumously awarded the Silver Star for valor for what the Army described as his heroic confrontation with the “well-armed enemy.”

The only problem with the Army’s account, said Kevin Tillman, was that “it was utter fiction.”

The initial account of the incident in which Private Lynch was taken prisoner (she was later rescued) was lifted straight from Hollywood, a typical macho fantasy of war. There was no validity to the story, and Private Lynch, very seriously wounded, had had nothing to do with it. Ms. Lynch told the committee that “the story of the little girl Rambo from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting” was simply not true.

She said she remains “confused as to why they chose to lie.”

A government that will lie about the tragic fates of honorable young Americans like Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch will lie to the public about anything.

One of the primary tasks of a journalist is to protect the public from such lies by exposing them, and by reporting the truth. David Halberstam was a master at that.

In a larger sense, our job has to do with the question Julia Campbell asked in those days when her heart was set on a career in journalism. We don’t know why the world is the way it is, but the job of the journalist is always in some sense to chase after the answer to that question.

Photo Credit: Bob Herbert. (The New York Times)

Technorati tags: Bob Herbert, New York Times, Julia Campbell, David Halberstam, journalism, news, commentary, op ed

Bill Moyers: "Buying the War"

CLICK TO WATCH: Bill Moyers: Buying the War | PBS:

"Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln and delivered a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. Despite profound questions and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. How did they get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 continue to go largely unreported?"

For transcript of documentary and more information CLICK HERE.

Related:

• The Hill's Pundit Blog - � Bill Moyers on Media and Iraq: When Lies Become Truth, Soldiers Die


• Bill Moyers: A Time For Anger, A Call To Action

Technorati tags: Bill Moyers, "Buying the War", video, media, Bush, Iraq, news