[Bush] complains that negative news crowds out good news in the reporting about Iraq. He has a point because news is almost always by definition negative. A former NBC executive once said that news is what the government would pay you not to print; the rest is advertising.That's true under a First Amendment-respecting government-- when journalists compete to attract attention by scaring the audience. But when a government does not respect the First Amendment, it does its own advertising and prevents actual news (as defined above) from being published. And, lest we forget, that's a perfect description of Saddam Hussain's regime--and The News We Kept To Ourselves CNN admits it accepted the regime's restrictions as the price of appearing to report "objective news" from Baghdad.
And if the news is what the govenment doesn't want to discuss, that does not prove that the rest--"advertising"--is untrue. It simply means that journalism has a different, and practially opposite, perspective and set of incentives to those of the government (at least a Republican government).
The obstacles faced by journalists working in the United States pale next to the experiences related by the IWMF Courage awardees. We’re chafing under Bush’s public-relations offensive against the national media.Journalists view a Republican president's effort to use the so-called "bully pulpit" with hostility because of the contrast of incentives between them--and because they expect to control the best pulpit. Journalism functions as an Establishment (one which, like the mafia, denies its own existence) for that very purpose.
The lunch concluded with a solemn video tribute to 18 journalists who died in Iraq. They came from many nations, but they were all drawn there to learn the truth, “or whatever is closest to it,” said CNN’s Judy Woodruff, who acted as moderator.No, they went to gather news. The truth is more than the news. The news functions as a half-truth--the part of the truth which makes a propaganda wind at the backs of liberal politicians.
Courage Under Fire -
What GW Bush could learn from journalists
who cover the world’s hot spots
Newsweek | 10-17-03 | Eleanor Clift