Free Republic

"The stated mission of the Public Affairs office is to provide accurate information to the media and the public. But Smith’s aim seems to be to turn his office into a political spin operation that serves the White House."

The U.S. Senate voted Friday to confirm a new Pentagon spokesman. Senators approved the nomination of Dorrance Smith, a former ABC News producer, to be assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. The vote was 59-34. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., had held up the nomination because of an opinion article in which Smith accused U.S. television networks of helping terrorists through their partnerships with Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera. In a column in the Wall Street Journal, Smith cited “the ongoing relationship between terrorists, al-Jazeera and the networks….Isn't it time to scrutinize the relationship among al-Jazeera, American networks and the terrorists? What...

What is the relationship between al-Jazeera, al Qaeda and America's TV networks?BY DORRANCE SMITH Friday, November 4, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST (Editor's note: Sen. Carl Levin is opposing Mr. Smith's confirmation as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs because of the senator's objections to this article, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal, April 25. A related editorial appears here.) On April 11, Jeffrey Ake, an American, was taken hostage in Iraq. Video of him in captivity was shown on al-Jazeera on April 13. A short time later six American networks--ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC--aired the same video, a...

On his last night in the anchor chair at a political convention, Tom Brokaw of NBC was feeling resigned. The conventions, he said in an interview on Thursday, were mere "infomercials," with little to interest anyone beyond political partisans. "These events are managed down to the last semicolon," said Mr. Brokaw, who is retiring after the election. "That's why I find it hard to climb those stairs and get into the anchor chair anymore." Like Mr. Brokaw, a number of television executives yesterday blamed the Republicans and Democrats for the networks' dwindling convention viewership. But as the Fox News cable...