Jeff Gannon - A Voice of the New Media: Media outrage over planted Iraq stories hollow

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December 05, 2005

Media outrage over planted Iraq stories hollow

Predictably, the Old Media cried, “Foul!” over reports that the Pentagon might have been paying for positive press coverage in Iraq. It claims that planting stories in Iraqi newspapers that showed only one side of events in the war undermines a most basic institution of the democracy that Americans are spending blood and treasure to establish. There is no doubt that a free, independent press is essential to a stable political environment in the post-Saddam era. However, it is hypocritical of the American media to throw stones at the Pentagon when its own house is made of glass.

A wave of talking heads and editorials denounced the Pentagon’s program to influence public opinion in Iraq with news stories that focused only on the aspects that supported the article’s premise. But that criticism is at best disingenuous considering the conduct of the Old Media, especially as it relates to the war in Iraq. Its own biased coverage accounts for Americans’ increasingly negative attitude toward the war, to say nothing of its thinly disguised liberal leanings and political agenda.

An editorial in the Boston Globe called the Pentagon operation “an ethical breach stunning in its callous disregard for the truth,” and accused the Bush administration of “trashing the principles of a free press.” The fact that the information contained in the articles was true and not available from other news outlets in the region seems to matter little to the publication that was a cheerleader for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

The Globe cherry-picks two items from the liberal media elite’s litany of Bush administration “attacks” on the media in support of its case; payments to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the “No Child Left Behind Act” on his radio and television shows and my admission to the White House press corps. These two incidents are supposed to represent examples of spin and deceit coming from an administration that disdains “open journalistic inquiry.”

But the Globe gets is completely backwards. It is because the White House rightfully distrusts the Old Media that it feels compelled to take steps to circumvent it. In the case of NCLB, the administration reached out to a credible voice to talk positively about a program of importance to the minority community. Except for Williams, most media coverage of the education accountability initiative was a recitation of negative talking points from the Democratic National Committee and the teachers unions.

With regard to my participation at White House press briefings, the Globe couldn’t be more wrong. It mistakes my questions asked from a conservative perspective as being pro-Bush softballs. It is understandable that it might have no idea what the queries from a conservative reporter sounds like, since it is so rare in the ultra-liberal Old Media universe. Ironically, it was the Globe who was so interested in writing a balanced story about me that it regurgitated a press release from the George Soros funded Media Matters and contacted me only to ask what college I attended.

It is laughable for the Old Media to be so concerned about the integrity of the press in Iraq when its own credibility is in shambles. This same crowd continues to heap praise on Dan Rather, as if he had never been involved in one of the most egregious media scandal of all time. It still accepts as truth every word that crosses Joe Wilson’s lips despite the fact that he has been proven to be a liar. Newspapers rail against corporate scandals but gloss over their own criminal acts of defrauding advertisers with inflated circulation figures.

In all fairness, the Old Media should be considered to have the ability to recognize a propaganda operation in Iraq, since CNN admitted to running one for Saddam Hussein’s regime. In 2003, Eason Jordan confessed that his network covered up for the atrocities of the Iraqi dictator in exchange for keeping its Baghdad bureau open.

A free press is important for democracy to thrive in Iraq, but it shouldn’t be modeled after the American Old Media. Iraqis deserve better.

Posted by jeffgannon at December 5, 2005 01:52 PM

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December 05, 2005

Media outrage over planted Iraq stories hollow

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