MSNBC execs killed important Bush stories

Gee, tell me something I don't know!

The major American news media is in effect the country's official news organ. The commercial networks and news organizations effectively get government subsidies in the form of the '96 telcom law, a favorable regulatory structure, and the like. So who should be surprised that the media kills important news stories about the ruling regime?

Yesterday, in the wake of Scott McClellan's memoir, CNN's Jessica Yellin revealed that executives at MSNBC (where Yellin worked during the pre-bubbling of the Iraq War) pressured her into not doing devastating stories about the Bush regime.

Yellin said, "The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the President's [sic] high approval ratings."

What high approval ratings? I know Jessica Yellin is talking about 2003, but the high approval ratings she's referring to are the ones the right-wing media pulled out of its ass. In reality, Bush never had the high numbers the media claimed. Since his rise in the '90s, the media has built up Bush as some sort of folk hero - a messiah even.

The American media in recent years has been about on par with Pravda. MSNBC - known in the current campaign for doing an incredibly shitty job of doctoring a clip of a Michelle Obama speech - isn't alone in its suppression of negative stories about Bush.

This is far more than merely annoying, especially because the time frame Yellin refers to was just prior to the war. It was obvious then that the media was cheering the war and not digging deep or raising many incisive questions about the effort. As with the '91 Gulf War, the media in 2003 had a pack mentality that muzzled opposing views. And it still does.

We can also link this phenomenon to the Decider's buildup of any possible bombing or attack against any country besides Iraq - like Iran, for instance. A possible attack on Iran may be the real story now, and the media has done no digging into this story either.

Media outlets are supposed to ask questions so the public knows all the facts - not parrot party propaganda. The one-sided coverage the media offered is the model of corporatism and is antithetical to democracy.

I think we can also put this "liberal media" myth to rest too. We're decades past that point now.

(Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0508/CNNs_Yellin_Network_execs_killed_critical_White_House_stories_.html)