Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has received at least his alloted 15 minutes to flog his book asserting that the establishment media were “complicit enablers” of President Bush’s agenda prior to the invasion of Iraq.
While McClellan trades on the authoritah of his former post, Ari Fleischer — who was the actual White House press secretary during the period at issue — gives the chapter and verse demonstrating how sceptical the media actually was, from the first week following the 9/11 attacks through the invasion. Granted, had I been a member of the White House press corps, I too would do my best to blank out any memory of Helen Thomas, but it is not intellectually honest to do so.
The establishment media flogs itself over Iraq now only to serve The Narrative™. If the establishment media was truly concerned about complictly enabling a political agenda, we would be seeing a lot more navel-gazing over the Rasmussen poll showing that a plurality of the public believes that most reporters will try to help Barack Obama and that more Democrats believe this than believe the press will try to help past media darling John McCain. And a lot more navel-gazing than was prompted by the series of media confessions that the establishment media is fawning over Obama. Instead, you tend to get journos wondering whether the fawning hurts Obama.
(h/t HotAir headlines.)
– For any of us that may be thinking 5+ months is a long time to gush daily tomes based on “looks good”, “speaks well”, and “Kennedy”, carefully avoiding any nasty talk about “inexperience”, just recall what the NYT, and others in the Left driven press, were able to do with Abu Graib for over a year, essentially rehashing the same basic facts, intermeshed with opinion and rumors put forth as “news”. At one point they scored a record 38 headlines in a row by simply re-arranging a few sentences and paragraphs.
– When the Legacy media gets a full blown case of “Liberal candidate OCD” its all-out pandering without mercy.
Has the MSM been “complicit enablers” of Bush’s agenda?…
Former WH press secretary Ari Fleischer takes on another former WH press secretary’s – Scott McClellan – assertion in his new book that the mediots were “complicit enablers” in President Bush’s domestic and foreign agenda:
At th…
[…] Protein Wisdom:  The establishment media flogs itself over Iraq now only to serve The Narrativeâ„¢. If the establishment media was truly concerned about complictly enabling a political agenda, we would be seeing a lot more navel-gazing over the Rasmussen poll showing that a plurality of the public believes that most reporters will try to help Barack Obama and that more Democrats believe this than believe the press will try to help past media darling John McCain. And a lot more navel-gazing than was prompted by the series of media confessions that the establishment media is fawning over Obama. Instead, you tend to get journos wondering whether the fawning hurts Obama. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
[…] According to a recent Rasmussen poll only 17% of voters in America believe that most reporters try to offer unbiased coverage of election campaigns. In other words a resounding percentage of people believe the media to be bias and have an agenda. […]
I sure wish I had an answer about how to bring a little honesty to the Press Corps. I tried to sign up when I was in college, but aside from being disgusted even then by how slanted the principals were, I actually took it to heart when it was hinted that I really wouldn’t go very far criticizing the people who would have to hire me if I wanted to be a journalist.
Funny how “conservative” the left suddenly gets when they’re the ones being questioned.
Maybe things would be different if I were starting now, but back then it was far easier to just go a different direction.
Ari is a disgusting liar who should not be allowed to be a part of polite society. Scott is a truth-teller.