When media lie, soldiers die.
From The Hill’s Pundits Blog
Bill Moyers on Media and Iraq: When Lies Become Truth, Soldiers Die
Brent Budowsky
On Christopher Lydon’s radio show, several journalists recounted their recent dinner with David Halberstam shortly before his death.
Halberstam was mournful at the decline of the media in the days of Iraq, remembering how he and others warned the nation, and their readers, in the early days of the Vietnam War.
Bill Moyers reports the story well in his PBS special about the media and Iraq.
When it mattered, in 2002 and 2003, virtually the entire American major media covered Iraq the way Pravda covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
MORE MORE MOREThey jumped on what they believed was the winning side politically, maintained their insider power base, and sustained the high income that would have been threatened if they reported the truth…
Now we can see him on television, 3,000 Gold Star Mothers later and perhaps a million bucks wealthier, feeling really great about himself and what an awful war this is…
For those who missed it, pull up the C-SPAN coverage of the White House Correspondents Dinner. The beginning looked like Academy Awards night: red carpet, dramatic entrance by the celebrity stars, the men dashing in their tuxedos and women glamorous in their gowns. “Hey, there’s Wolf! Wow, it’s Andrea! George, George!!!!” All with a demure and well-timed smile aimed at the red light on the camera.
Life is good for the glamorous who cheered for profit when the young were sent to die in the sands of Arabia, as they preened at the self-glorifying dinners where they honor each other for a job well done.
It’s been a good war for companies that make ripoff profits and media that have turned ripoff journalism into a multi-million-dollar art form.
It’s been a great war for journalists who morph into insiders, taking their handouts from their sources, reaping huge wealth by repeating spin and calling it news, all the while dining in elegance at the seat of power, believing “it’s a wonderful life” and smiling for the cameras when fans greet them at gala dinners.
There are important exceptions: Sy Hersh and Mary Mapes turning the lights on Abu Ghraib, Tom Ricks reporting on the military with honor, Dana Priest exposing the shame of treatment of wounded troops, James Risen revealing the massive eavesdropping without court order, Bob Parry offering a different point of view on consortiumnews.com, Mark Karlin on the site buzzflash.com and Rob Kall on opednews.com ferreting out major stories often unrecognized by the major media. Then there’s smirkingchimp.com, which not only has the most appropriate name for the modern era but is another outlet for truth in news, and Caro Kay on makethemaccountable.com…
Budowsky is a contributing editor to Fighting Dems News Service and former aide to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, former chief deputy whip of the House. He can be reached at brenbbi@webtv.net This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it and read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog.
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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com