Jessica Yellin 180°

Well, that didn't take long.

Today on the network's website, there's a noticeably terse statement from CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin attempting to, ahem, "clarify" her admission, made a couple of nights ago on Anderson Cooper 360°, that during the run-up to the Iraq war, she was pressured into altering or killing stories that were critical of the White House.

Yellin makes a point to reassure viewers that she wasn't at CNN back in 2003 -- she was a pentagon reporter for MSNBC at the time -- then flips a pretty sharp U-turn from her previous claim:

"Let me say: No, senior corporate leadership never asked me to take out a line in a script or re-write an anchor intro. I did not mean to leave the impression that corporate executives were interfering in my daily work; my interaction was with senior producers. What was clear to me is that many people running the broadcasts wanted coverage that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the country at the time. It was clear to me they wanted their coverage to reflect the mood of the country."

The statement ends, amusingly, with Yellin saying, "And now I'm going back to work covering the Puerto Rico primary from San Juan."

From which I'll never return.

What makes Jessica Yellin's "clarification" so much fun is that you can almost see the gun being pointed at her head by CNN management as you read her words. She may as well be staring nervously through a crack in the doorway, telling the cop who just pulled up, "Oh no officer, I was a little upset when I made that phone call. There's nothing wrong. Everything's fine in here." Yellin hopes to deflect attention away from the executives who truly call the shots and set the mood in today's newsrooms and onto the mid-level pawns who are in constant and direct contact with her on a daily basis -- the problem of course being that edicts roll down from the top; who the hell do you think is making it clear to the senior producers the direction the broadcasts need to be going in?

Without realizing it, Yellin may have just helped to illustrate a pretty repugnant truism within the rubric of corporate journalism these days: Everything seems designed to insulate the people at the top, protecting them from exposure to accountability. The only factor that truly has the ability to affect the lives of the executives in the adminisphere or their corporate overlords is the ratings. The numbers are the end that will always justify the means; what those means may be is irrelevant -- not when ad revenue is at stake. If you think it's something bordering on tragic that the hierarchy within most modern news operations works like the Mafia -- or maybe Congress -- you're right.

For just a moment, Jessica Yellin spoke her mind and pulled back the curtain to reveal the reality of what went on within America's spineless news media during the rush to war -- then thought the better of it and either through subtle coercion or with the unfortunate knowledge that her career may be on the line, "corrected" herself.

Regardless, anyone with a brain knew the truth all along anyway -- and still does.

(By the way, the link to Yellin's statement was sent to me by a senior producer within CNN whom I've never met. Gotta love that.)

Follow Chez Pazienza on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chezpazienza

Comments

[GnitenGoodLk]

There were serious questions going on in NY against going into Iraq. That was NOT covered by the major networks, only the NYT mentioned them, so for the apologists out there know that the mood in the country was "what the Hell does Iraq have to do with 9/11?? They were all Saudi!" Barbara Bush had to make a special trip to NY to defend the action.

NY knew, the networks squashed it.

[lovethesinner]

FAAAAAAAAbulous post. Loved the facts, the truth, but most of all the writing.

The abused wife who can't seem to leave the wife-beater!!!

This is the crux of the problem. As Amy Goodman said, "if the mainstream media were actually a state run propaganda machine, how would it look any different". But, you go that extra step of showing that there is something more pernicious going on in that JOURNALISTS are IN DENIAL ABOUT THEIR CO-DEPENDANCY with the PROPAGANDA.

Just brilliant. An image I'll never get out of my head. Thanks, Chez.

[coollbreezz]

Bush is only a part of the great conspiracy to deceived the America people. Yellin implicated MSM but main stream religion also played an important roll in the propaganda campaign leading up to the Iraq War. .But the Iraq war wasn't about WMDs, or advancing democracy not even about oil.. According to Bush adviser and member of the 9/11 commission Phillip Zelikow, he said the "Iraq war was launched to protect Israel." Its all about Israel and the NWO agenda. The White House and the MSM has covered-up this truth.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0329-11.htm
http://joeland7.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/the-new-world-order-religious-and-political-conspiracy/

[Snowball]

Yeah, oil man Bush and Military Industrial Complex Cheney had nothing to do with it, it's because of an International Jewish Conspiracy. That certainly explains everything. Nice, easy, simple, old school Protocols of Zion stuff shifts blame away from Big Energy and the Military Industrial Complex. Why engage in structural analysis of the economic interests that control our government when we can blame everything on a small group of Jews?

What a useful tool you are.

Yes, the political objectives of right wing Zionists and the American Military Industrial Complex and Big oil had a confluence of interests in establishing an American military footprint in Iraq, but to think that Bush and Cheney invaded simply to appease right wing Zionists is weak at best. The corporate interests that Bush and Cheney serve are far more powerful than any handful of delusional right wing Jews or Israeli lobby will ever be.

[Counterglow]

Very nicely said. I get so sick and tired of everybody assuming that when you point out how a bunch of groups with common interests acted together, you're some kind of conspiracy nut.

You're perfectly right. Bush/Cheney, Israel, military contractors and lot of others with huge influence in Washington (and their own very independent agendas) all saw advantage in an invasion of Iraq.

Sadly, none of those major players give a damn about whether average people live or die. 4,000 dead American soldiers and god only knows how many dead Iraqis mean less to them than whether their lawn coffee was served on time.

[Snowball]

Your right about Corporate Media executives wanting to "insulate people at the top" that is, except when it comes to Democrats, then its an entirely different ballgame. Did they insulate Bill Clinton, Al Gore or John Kerry, no way. This leads me to the conclusion that its more ideology on the part of the owners of the media than it is about any kowtowing to authority or network ratings. Phil Donahue had the highest ratings on MSNBC when they took him off. As corporations, the media have a vested financial interest and share an ideological perspective with the Republican party. Until people on the left start to connect the dots and understand that the Corporate Media is not an objective observer, but a partisan actor with a right wing, corporate political agenda, we will continue to be blindsided when they trash Democratic politicians and pimp for Republicans. Yellin's turnaround is evidence of the power the media holds over journalists who fear losing their job and the status and wealth that comes with it if they step out of line. Olbermann is a fluke and the cat that got let out of the bag before the suits could stuff him back in.

[watererbob]

This has been going on for quite a while. We should have raised a stink to high heavens when they pulled "The Smothers Brothers" off the air! I guess we didn't connect the dots back then.

[burnt]

yes! I do want my salary... please

[findingthetruth]

It's amazing HOW Bush and his cronies can scare "heebeegeebees" outa folks!

[Bobzmcishl]

Where are the Ed Murrow's and Walter Cronkites who could not be coerced into spinning the news? Instead we are fed a diet of Gibson and Stephanopolis, and others who pander to the ratings game by sensationalizing the news through tabloid style reporting. Bill Moyers and Keith Olbermann are the best journalists we have going today but they don't have the audience that Murrow and Cronkite had. And now we have Fox News which is unique into itself. Nothing close to Fox existed during the heyday of the network news. Our salvation is the internet where it's possible to do ones own research and double check the facts. You sure can't depend on the print or tv media to represent our interests any longer.

[deadbolt]

No wait.....e­r.......I wasn't pressured before I was pressured.

[billsmile]

The truth will set you free...

Free from your career as a journalist in corporate America.

[SamThornton]

Jessica Yellin's punishment: romantic dinner-date with Glenn Beck.

[dgscol]

Am I jellin with Yellin? Sort of.

[coldcanuckinwhite]

Yes, she was not telling us anything most of us didn't already know. Youv'e got your conscience to live with people, look at Scottie.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

This is only a fraction of the problem.

Hyping the war was good for business and so was the war itself.

I'm sure shock and bore got some great ratings. I'm glad to say I didn't watch it.

"No news is good news" but not so good for ratings.

[MVPOnline]

Ratings are the only thing these media networks understand. That is, when their ratings drop, that affects their bottom lines (profit and market share).

I found that when I simply turned off the TV and cancelled my cable subscription (thereby relying more on a variety of sources online), I was not only better informed, but I was able to ignore all the morons who try to fill my head with complete idiocy.

[freshnotbitter]

Regardless of what media people think - and I don't know what they think - we in the public who work for corporations understand very well how corporate America works and we understand that it doesn't work the way the mainstream media pretends.

Yellin's "clarification" is pretty much perfect as far as I can see. It does what it is supposed to do. I have been enjoying Yellin's reports on the campaign. Good luck to her.

I believe if Jessica were perfectly honest she would add to her previous comments that the "suits" were following Bush obsequiously because it would have been "unpatriotic" to do otherwise and there was no other viable choice. The term "unpatriotic" is defined by the public who determine TV ratings and who make up the consumers of products produced by the corporations who buy advertising and thereby emmploy the suits and Jessica Yellin.

It is a nasty, vicious cycle and it explains how a great country can degenerate and slip into the ranks of the also rans in this world. The public is to blame but the first commandment of business says: "The customer is always right".

[dshwa]

You've illustrated how it became circular at this point, and this is where the trouble is. The "mood' of the country was "patriotic," so the networks backed the president, presented only one side of the story, which was all the public got, so opinion swung with the coverage, justifying more of the same coverage.