Journalism

NBC's Brian Williams Defends Pentagon Propaganda

by John Stauber — April 30, 2008 - 12:22pm

Main Source: 
Salon.com, April 30, 2008

Pentagon, TV Networks Fear Debating Iraq Propaganda Scandal - Stauber vs. Zelnick on NewsHour

by John Stauber — April 25, 2008 - 11:31am
  • Topics: Internet, Journalism, Iraq, Ethics, Propaganda, U.S. Government

    • I debate Bob Zelnick on PBS NewsHour

    This Sunday's stunning, front-page New York Times revelations of the Pentagon military analyst program have been met with a wall of silence and cover-up on network television news. America's TV networks -- ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and FOX -- are where most Americans get most of their news, and they are the main culprits in allowing Donald Rumsfeld and Torie Clarke to turn them into the primary propaganda tool for selling the Iraq war to the public.

    PBS NewsHour covered this issue in a televised debate April 24 pitting me against Robert Zelnick, former ABC Pentagon correspondent and now chair of the Boston University journalism department. (Zelnick is also affiliated with the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank.) No one from the Pentagon would agree to appear on the PBS show, nor would anyone appear from any of the guilty TV networks.

    My debate with Zelnick is now on YouTube, where you can watch it yourself. The NewsHour report on the Pentagon pundits that preceded our debate is also online, and if you have a slow internet connection (or if you find my face and voice too irritating to tolerate), you can also read the online transcript.

    Extinguishing Media Coverage of Olympic Torch Protests

    by Bob Burton — April 22, 2008 - 11:07pm

    Pro-Tibet groups plan protests when the Olympic Torch procession gets to Canberra, the Australian capital, but the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) has taken pre-emptive steps to minimize unfavourable media coverage.

    Main Source: 
    The Australian, April 22, 2008

    Embedding Military Propagandists into the News Media

    by John Stauber — April 22, 2008 - 3:47pm
  • Topics: Journalism, Propaganda, U.S. Government, War / Peace

    • David Barstow of the New York Times has written the first installment in what is already a stunning exposé of the Bush Administration's most powerful propaganda weapon used to sell and manage the war on Iraq: the embedding of military propagandists directly into the TV networks as on-air commentators. We and others have long criticized the widespread TV network practice of hiring former military officials to serve as analysts, but even in our most cynical moments we did not anticipate how bad it was. Barstow has painstakingly documented how these analysts, most of them military industry consultants and lobbyists, were directly chosen, managed, coordinated and given their talking points by the Pentagon's ministers of propaganda.

    Why Winter Soldier Got the Cold Shoulder

    by Diane Farsetta — April 9, 2008 - 4:37pm

    Why didn't the New York Times cover the "Winter Soldier" hearings organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), during which soldiers testified about their experiences in Iraq?

    Main Source: 
    Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, April 8, 2008

    War? What War?

    by Sheldon Rampton — April 3, 2008 - 8:30am
  • Topics: Internet, Journalism, Iraq

    • "Five years later, the United States remains at war in Iraq, but there are days when it would be hard to tell from a quick look at television news, newspapers and the Internet," observes New York Times reporter Richard Pérez-Peña. "Media attention on Iraq began to wane after the first months of fighting, but as recently as the middle of last year, it was still the most-covered topic. Since then, Iraq coverage by major American news sources has plummeted, to about one-fifth of what it was last summer, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism."

    The past week saw a dramatic escalation in violence in Iraq and rising civilian deaths, prompting analysts to warn that "Iraqis may be about to witness a new phase in the cycle of violence ... intra-Shi'ite bloodletting that could tear Iraq apart and more deeply embroil U.S. forces." But even these developments have barely cast a media ripple.

    The Iraq war has also been losing ground for attention on the internet, according to a recent report which shows that "the war in Iraq continues to decline in search interest, down 120 percent over the past three and a half years," while interest turns to topics such as Paris Hilton, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, Heath Ledger and the latest YouTube video.

    Imaging Study Leaves Tobacco Funding Out of the Picture

    by Anne Landman — March 26, 2008 - 3:12pm

    The lead author of the largest lung cancer screening study ever performed has come under fire for accepting cigarette company funding for the study. Dr.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, March 26, 2008

    Think Tank Citations Sink

    by Diane Farsetta — March 24, 2008 - 3:29pm

    "The 25 most media-prominent think tanks were cited 17 percent less in 2007 than they were the year before," according to an annual survey by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). "The overall ideological breakdown was the same ...

    Main Source: 
    Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, March / April 2008

    U.S. News Media in Quite a State

    by Diane Farsetta — March 19, 2008 - 4:50pm

    "The state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled than a year ago," opens the latest "State of the News Media" report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Among the major findings is that the Internet is not yet the democratizing media force many hoped for.

    Main Source: 
    Project for Excellence in Journalism, March 16, 2008
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