The blood that was never spilled has been cleaned up…
Ladies and gentlemen, the Pentagon Players proudly present to you: “The Death of the American Media” or “Rupert Murdoch Laughs Last.”
Thursday morning in Baghdad multiple car bombs and rocket attacks killed at least 40 people, including many children and several US soldiers. The Bush administration, The Washington Post reports Thursday, worried that negative stories like these are dominating the news headlines during an election period, has decided to send out Iraq Americans to bring what the Defense Department calls “the good news” about the situation in Iraq to US military bases.The Post also reports that the administration is moving to “curtail distribution” of reports that show the situation in Iraq growing worse. In particular, the US Agency of International Development said this week that it will “restrict distribution” of a report by its contractor, Kroll Security International, that showed the number of attacks by insurgents had been increasingly dramatically over the past few months. Attacks have risen to 70 a day, up from 40-50, since Iraqi Prime Minister Alawi took office in June.
Every administration talks about controlling the media. Few actually do it. And with good reason. The media exists to be our conduit to the truth. Putting aside their success or lack thereof for the moment, the instant the media begins to buckle to unfair pressure from the power structure, it has already lost. I recognize the burning desire for access, and with this administration only the outlets that positively dote on the President and his friends have been granted all-access passes. But what good does access do you if you have give up the right to report the truth? And given the fact that CBS previously held back the Abu Ghraib story for a full month at the Pentagon’s request – and then failed to do anything about the issue until the story finally broke – requests to postpone reporting on anything other than true, solid matters of national security have little credibility any more.
That said, is anybody else surprised that this story is also being reported by the Washington Post?