Media new boogeyman of Iraq

UPI ^ | 9/27/2003 | Oamela Hess, Pentagon corresspondent

[inPhase]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- As Bush administration officials and Pentagon chiefs peddle their $87 billion supplemental bill for Iraq next year - even as President Bush's popularity on the issue wanes -- they have a new enemy in their sites. Not Saddam or Osama, but the media.

As they see it, the problem in Iraq is not so much the almost daily casualties or the pace of rebuilding but the fact that the news media keeps harping on it, at the expense of reporting "good news."

"I understand that breaking news is largely driven by bad news. That's a structural defect of a free press," said L. Paul Bremer, the American administrator in Iraq, at a House Armed Services Committee Hearing Thursday.

The conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington is holding a symposium next week on the very topic. "Is the Bush administration losing control of the situation on the ground, or is the media transforming a military victory into a defeat?" asks a flyer for the Oct. 7 panel discussion. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell talked about the skewed news on Late Night with David Letterman on Thursday.

"It's a troublesome issue that we're all very concerned about," said Army Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane at the same hearing. "The American people need to have the (good) information to help balance the daily loss of life."

[inPhase]

FYI

[OldFriend]

Doesn't that word 'peddling' say it all. BIAS ALERT

[Cicero]

I understand that breaking news is largely driven by bad news.

That isn't it at all. The media bent over backward to make clinton look good in his various war crimes and fiascos. They still haven't told the truth about Kosovo.

The media are the enemy because they are the enemy--because they are full of left-wing liars who deliberately twist the news.

[Leroy S. Mort]

This article is not "as" bad, in its entirety, as the excerpted paragraphs might indicate.

[inPhase]

seamole, thought we were not supposed to post the entire article. It's OK?

[inPhase]

That is not excepted -- I cut it off because I remember the law suit against Jim Robinson. Is there a rule?

[Ex-Dem]

I read this one this afternoon. She takes a number of shots at both the media for biased reporting, and the CPA (inc. Bremer) for indirectly contributing to that by not allowing more access.

Can't say that I blame Bremer for wanting to limit access to military personnel. The media will stop at nothing to find that one disgruntled soldier and portray him as being representative of the overall sentiment of our troops. It happened with ABC and those 3rd ID soldiers a few months ago.

[Brilliant]

He says "daily casualties", but there have been only 86 deaths since May 1, and that was 150 days ago.

[PGalt]

"I understand that breaking news is largely driven by bad news. That's a structural defect of a free press," said L. Paul Bremer, the American administrator in Iraq, at a House Armed Services Committee Hearing Thursday.

It is not a free press. It is a propaganda monopoly that is starting to crumble.

[inPhase]

Doesn't that word 'peddling' say it all. BIAS ALERT


Hard to read anything that is not biased.
Good example.
Another person here says that the excerpt does not reflect the article in that it is not as bad as the excerpt. (I checked exerpt box but I just did a cut off)


"Bias" would infer to each person a different thing.

It does let General Keane reflect (in quote.)

[inPhase]

Click on my screen name

Thanks.

[Arpege92]

"The media are the enemy because they are the enemy--because they are full of left-wing liars who deliberately twist the news."

Yes, and the brilliant part about that statement is the American public knows it, which is why we take their reporting with a grain of salt.

[inPhase]

Yes media monop succumbing to the internet which is a free market

but they will try to find a way to take control

probably taxes and political control of the bit packet net/routes (already in place)

[inPhase]

The casualties include wounded.

[Bud Bundy]

We get hours every day of the Laci Peterson case, but nobody can find time to report the full story in Iraq.

But, I really don't see why the administration doesn't send all the Cabinet members and other VIP's out to the Sunday talk shows to just harp on all the good things that are going on in Iraq. Week after week. Regardless of what the media's talking heads want to ask them, they can just ignore the questions and go on and on about the positives in Iraq - I've never seen a politician answer the question they were asked anyway, so it certainly wouldn't be out of the ordinary.

[OldFriend]

The media lies non stop and then criticizes anyone who dares to complain.

[StriperSniper]

Some of the negative coverage is generated by an older generation of reporters who cut their teeth on the Vietnam war experience. U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid said on Thursday the military is largely to blame for that, as the Vietnam situation was "perverted" because "we didn't really tell the truth." Reporters who endured Vietnam -- where what they saw with their own eyes was regularly denied and spun -- are not inclined to believe the military story today.

The United States government and military are supposed to be forces for good. And they should be efficient, responsible stewards of tax money. And they should tell the truth at all times.

It is news when it falls short of that ideal.

Living up to the ideal should not be remarkable, but standard operating procedure.

That last line about living up to the ideal should also be for the media, which it has not been of late. At least this reporter is starting to get it.

While the manipulation during the Vietnam War may have given the media a reason not to trust the military, the distortion of todays media, gives the military good reason not to trust the media now.