Why Americans Hate Journalism, Part 62

Ron Suskind's new book reports that in 2003, the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter to "prove" that Iraq had a hand in 9/11 and that Saddam was buying yellowcake uranium from Niger for his WMD program with the help of Al Qaeda.

When this came up on MSNBC, moderator Chuck Todd asked Politico's Mike Allen whether this would lead "the anti-war crowd" in Congress to call for impeachment. Allen replied that it would "give the lefty blogosphere something to grab onto."

And so, in less time than it takes to say "Dick Cheney," the subject is changed from what would be one of the most outrageous violations of the Constitution in the history of the Republic to a left/right issue. Instead of taking a breath to consider the merits and consequences of Suskind's charges, MSNBC's It's-Always-Super-Tuesday-Over-Here reframing machine instantly transforms a shocking allegation about the abuse of power into a piece of political football, a tactic, an occasion for the players in the grand political theater that cable news says Washington really is to assume their designated roles, like a Punch and Judy show.

Only it's not that funny, is it? I don't imagine that the families of the tens of thousands of American soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq think that wanting to hold the president and vice president accountable for breaking the law means you're part of "the anti-war crowd" (meaning, the un-kewl kids). If the White House asked the CIA to cook up this disinformation aimed at the American people, why shouldn't the righty blogosphere, too, be up in arms? Why doesn't every American, regardless of political party, have a stake in the truth and the rule of law?

I know, I know: that's not Chuck Todd's or Mike Allen's jobs. Unfortunately, the closest that the MSM usually comes to weighing the evidence is saying: Ron Suskind charges X, and the White House denies it. This is what is now called reporting.

Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan

Comments

[realpolitic]

Marty Kaplan identifies the problem. I guess it is much intellectually easier for journalists to frame everything in terms of left/right instead of actually looking at the merits of the issue. Traditional conservatives who distrust government should be more appalled by the administration forging documents to make a case for war than anyone. Why journalists continually fall into this trap is anyone's guess. I would think they do not want to be criticized as partisan, so they frame everything as a partisan debate to escape the charge. It is sad, intellectually lazy, and undermines the right of the people to have a government that does not outwardly lie to them. The fourth estate is staggered and almost collasped. But at least, no one is offended.

[marksiet]

Marty you have tagged this correctly. The MSM goes with a 'no guts' approach assuming their tired old tack of let's make this an issue so that opposing sides can have at it. Criminal fraud is now a matter of opinion when it leaves thousands of Americans killed and wounded. Has the MSM ever heard of accountability? This is what they should be calling for and making an issue of. Al Franken described the Bush Cheney mentality in his book The Truth as 'making up their own reality.' They insist that their reality trumps the truth. With this in mind they are able to ride roughshod over the constitution, the law, morality, and indeed everything that stands in the way of their version of reality. It is a funny thing about illusory realities, the real deal turns up and completely dispels the illusion. A scene then takes place evocative of mice running from a burning building as the illusions suddenly have no home, no where to go and no sense of where they are even running to.

[abluevoice]

What a amazing observation and it is the fruits of the long time Republican propaganda campaign to turn their spin and political talking points to another side of the facts, if the facts disagree with their propaganda.
Not that Suskind's revalations have been proven as fact yet. But even if they are, the Republicans have so re-defined media objectivity to reflect their talking points as the other side of the hard facts, that even MSNBC and The NY Times which Republicans accuse of having a liberal slant, automatically report a shocking political "high crime" as a partisan issue, with no investigative background on their part.

The Republican propaganda machine has destroyed our once great consensus democracy by demonizing the opposition and putting partisanship above the law.

[katiec]

The media is as bad as the republican party. Exaggeration, distortions and lies.
They ignore important news choosing to report on Paris's response rather
than a president and vice president who have comitted crimes. Kinda like
Mccains ads.
We all just have to realize they are biased, untruthful and not let them
sway our thinking or decisions.
We are not as stupid as they thiink we are!

[MSB]

This country is OVER.

Until the public revolts, the non-rich citizen will continue to get a diminishing portion of whatever pie we are splitting. The answer isn't to turn off t.v., the answer is to vote for people completely divorced from either party.

Socialism is demonized as some sort of intrinsic evil. This is idiotic. Socialism needs to be incentivized, just as capitalism needs to be regulated. Any economic system will fail without oversight by the citizens. Systems fail because they are co-opted by nefarious people. It is the CITIZEN that allows this to happen. We NEED to promote social programs in this country - otherwise WHY do I need a government?

We weed out the best people in politics the second they run. We only push through the liars. If you have had premarital sex, smoked a joint, belonged to the wrong faith, have no faith, attended a protest, registered with a non-mainstream political party, done anything dumb - and you are truthful about it - you are eliminated from consideration. If you lie about it - you continue on. Is it any wonder we find out the dirt once they are elected?

We are almost always choosing from amongst the worst of us - not the best.

[Marlyn]

"We are almost always choosing from amongst the worst of us - not the best."

But this time is different. This time we have one of the best ever to vote for, BARACK OBAMA.

[MSB]

I certainly hope you are correct. He is getting my vote although I find him far from my ideal. I really hope he is left of Bill Clinton once in office, but I'm not holding my breath. You are clearly less cynical than am I.

Here's hoping.

[Tulka2]

Amen!

I too am being assimilated. Just got comcast so i could have broadband. Went to their main page and lo and behold it's all Fox news. I am paying big money to bring that conter-revulotionary filth into my house.

Let's bring Zen ideas into politics. I think Obama is trying to, though he has other, perhaps more American metaphors. Socialism is the "middle way" between Communism and free market, unregulated, Godzilla capitalizm. All the really civilized, humane democracies have found this "middle way". Compromise doesn't mean selling out. Truth be told, the left is open to this kind of compromise. It's the right-wing that is unrelentingly orthodox in their political belief systems. For instance...? It really isn't Obama's race that bugs them most. It's that he is so wise, good, smart and he is a Democrat. There is no possible way for the right-wing to switch parties. They hate him for being right most of all. I do not know how to reach them, but, as they say, peace only comes by talking to enemies.

[Harbinger08]

Good post. This country IS over. What we are looking at is a dwindling minority of Patriots, from both the Left and Right, who value truth, who beleive in the Rule of Law, who beleive in the Constitution, and who recognize that the wad of lazy dis-information that the typical stupid consumer glugs down with his morning coffee and evening Bud Lite is nothing but useless crap. We are engaged in a war of attrition with tyranny that we are certain to lose. The insurmountable obstacle isn't the gangsterism and corruption, it's the apathy and stupidity. God help our children, because we have failed them utterly.

[nodonjuan]

Unfortunately most people would rather put wealthy people on a pedestal and hold on to hopes that they will win lotto than to realize their own lives are falling apart. Just like the red state syndrome, the poor and the middle class continue to vote against their own interests.

[ArtLiquidBlogspot]

Some-one may to need ask McCain, that some-one needs to disclose the Cheney Energy plan(2001 2002)that has America & Americans tied in knots,with soaring fuel prices,and the 700 billion American dollars leaving this country, "Thats not all folks" United States means "we the people" !! ........................................................................................together!

[jbatch]

This is outrageous. Fifty years form now, when historians from the Democratic Republics of in the India China are trying to figure out how the US's 230 year experiment with democracy came to an abrupt end in the early 21st Century, they will point to the failure of the press as the primary cause.

Violating the sacred trust to uphold and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, is not about tactics or politics -- it's about breaking the law and breaking the trust bestowed upon our leaders by us, the citizens.

Allen et. al. should have asked if this would be grist for the "constitution loving crowd," -- whether left or right.

Finally, when the Niger letter was first exposed and it became obvious it was a cheap fake -- it took the UN only a few Google searches to find out that some of the signatories had died before the date it was signed -- who among us did not think, first thing, that Bush and Cheney were ultimately responsible.

It is the kid of clumsy, inept thing they have made a signature of their administration.

The press should be impeached along with Bush and Cheney.

[vooter]

LOL! I sent the story about Suskind's book and the forged letter to CNN on their "Report Breaking News" link, telling them that for some reason I hadn't seen anything on the CNN site about it, that it must have just been an oversight. What a nation of complete MONKEYS we live in.....

[Billie]

Yes, it's sickening to continuously hear reports of this administration's crimes and see no legal action ensue. Add to that sickening feeling when the repubs talk tough on crime.

[ICanHasDemocracy]

hey talk tough, because they know how to get away with it by heart.

[Lagrangian]

Yes, and since Ron Suskind is from "The Left", "fair and balanced" reporting demands that "The Right" be consulted to weigh in on it.

[dadw5boys]

Personally I blame the FOOD LION VS ABC NETWORK lawsuit for the media turn away from the American People.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

Operation Mockingbird, a part of history or an ongoing activity?

[WoodyCPM]

I wonder how many times it has to be repeated before the Pavlovian American public finally gets it throuh their collective dunderheads? You only have one single power over the crap in he media. Only one. Stop consuming it. TURN IT OFF! If you believe that you can watch it, and so long as you don't believe it then you're not consuming it, you don't understand. The advertisers, which is what TV is about, don't give a rat's ass whether you believe the programing. They care about whether you believe the advertising. The rates for advertising that are charged the companies that advertise on TV are based on the number of people watching. The advertisers, the companies that pay to advertise on TV, pay for the programming. Ergo, if you want to have some kind of control over what appears on TV....TURN IT OFF! Those are your choices. ON means you support it. OFF means you hate it. That's the binary world of advertising. It's just that simple. Dialing in another program isn't good enough. You're still watching. And BTW, the money that it costs to advertise on TV comes ultimately from the costs that consumers pay at the check out counter for the products and services that are sold to them. So you end up paying for the crap that is thrown at your head. Isn't free enterprise beautiful?

[bigkay]

The U.S. media & the cable channels & the advertisers have ruined what was a family tradition of watching the"news". I remember David Brinkley, Dan Rather, fondly. also Ted Koppel.
My friends have circumvented the U.S. Media by having a satillite-I go to their home to watch news from all over the world, it is rational, informative. Unlike the constant barrage of nonsense, talking heads,, .at MSNBC, CNN, FOX.

[ListenAndLearn]

Turning off the TV doesn't affect ratings. Nielsen Media Research provides ratings numbers to media outlets and advertisers based on what is being watched by those few Americans who are "Nielsen families." Those small numbers are then extrapolated to cover the rest of the nation. It's a very imperfect system.

[terramartom]

The media failed the American public for ratings not the truth. It is all about money. That is what they do, they make money selling a product, in this case a product that sells war at any cost. What we have in the USA is not a free press, but a weak press. A spinless inept press, hiding behind Corporate big wigs content to keep selling the same hash over and over.
How else could we end up with Bush and McCain even in politics. Two preveledged morons who couldn't pass a Jr. High S.A.T. Test for 13 years olds! Republicans do not rely on intelligence to promote from within they rely on the ability of deception, greed and back stabbing Brown Nosers of America fraternal club. Again only one goal- more money, more wealth at any cost to the planet.

[ARBOC2]

The press is not hiding behind corporate bigwigs; it's owned by corporate bigwigs. There is a difference. As a nation we are too deep into the insidious web of fascism, spawned by Republicans and nurtured to perfection by Karl Rove to ever make a meaningful recovery. It is naive in the extreme to pretend there is a chance for "hope" let alone "change" in the coming election farce.

[djarvis]

This post is so true. And it's not just Suskind's forged letter allegation that is being ignored by the MSM. When others like former White House press secretary Scott McLellan and former CIA director George Tenet came out with books outlining the Bush Administration's lies in the run-up to the war in Iraq, the stories were reported on and then seemingly forgotten. The MSM seems to want us to forget that we were deceived into going into war and let Bush and his cronies get away with these crimes and not hold anyone accountable for them.