Scooter's Trial Shines Harsh Light on DC Press Corps

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Nick Madigan of the Baltimore Sun reports, "The trial of I. Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, and recent disclosures ... are shining a harsh light on the sometimes overly symbiotic relationships between reporters and their sources. ... John Stauber, founder of the Center for Media and Democracy, a media watchdog group, said 'star' journalists and government officials 'go to the same parties' and 'rely on each other in many ways that are invisible to the public, that often involve trading favors mutually beneficial to their careers in the media or in government.' Stauber, the co-author, with Sheldon Rampton, of The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq, said the Iraq war was possible only 'because most of the mainstream media became like a propaganda arm of the Bush administration' and failed to point out that 'the best available evidence indicated no relationship between Saddam and 9/11, no relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda, and no active WMD program in Iraq.'"