February 21, 2005: All the President's Men - Part 1

First and foremost - we bow our heads in grief today for one of the greatest writers of our time, Hunter S. Thompson, who, in a very gonzo-like manner, decided to end his life by putting a bullet in his head yesterday.

With him, this nation has lost one of the loudest voices of political and social commentary. More so also since Thompson was feverishly dedicated to "the truth". Which is more than can be said of the rest of America's journalism community.

With the steaming pile of stories about the White House manipulating the national media growing taller day by day, one has to ask one-self what exactly the purpose of modern journalism is, or rather, what it should be.

Aren't journalists supposed to be truth-seekers? People (and their respective organizations - may they be of the broadcast or paper variety) that report on the truth to the masses?

Back in the early 70s, two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, gambled their lives and careers to bring a nasty political conspiracy to light that eventually brought down President Nixon (as chronicled in the movie All the Presiden't Men).

Their dedication to uncovering the reality of what had happened at Watergate is something that seems to sorely lack in today's journalism. Take, for example, a look at the list of recent occurences in which the White House or another governmental agency has manipulated the media (openly, but mostly subtly):

- Feds warned about fake news videos: The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was criticized last year for a series of video news releases in which a narrator, sometimes identified as "Karen Ryan" or "Mike Morris," said she or he was "reporting" on the office's activities. The tapes were sent to local television stations for use in news programs. The presentations "are intended to be indistinguishable from news segments broadcast to the public by independent television news organizations."

- The story on CBS' "60 Minutes" about the (supposedly) fake document relating to President Bush's Vietnam-era military service, resulting in "Rathergate" - the resignation of newscaster Dan Rather, and the rolling of 4 heads of the CBS news team. Why did all these people get axed? Not because they made a journalistic mistake - no. But rather because CBS was afraid to lose their Bush-friendly, right-wing clientele of advertisers. Instead of forfeiting millions in ad dollars, they decided to appease their clients by kicking out some journalists.

- The Jeff Gannon story. Alert readers will remember him as the White House "reporter" for Talon "News," who was unmasked for asking Bush only softball, partisan questions during press conferences. As it turns out now, he was one of Karl Rove's puppets. Who is Karl Rove? Bush's strategist, close friend and brain, of course.

- And last, but not least, the recent story of CNN chief Eason Jordan, who resigned his job after remarking at the World Economic Forum that U.S. forces in Iraq had deliberately targeted (and killed) some journalists. It was never discussed *why* he had made these comments (it's probably wrong to assume that he had a burning desire to get rid of his job - no?) - but if anybody would know about this, wouldn't it be somebody like him, the guy in charge of Iraq coverage for one of the nation's largest news networks? And if this indeed was reality, why would those forces have taken aim at journalists? To intimidate the rest into writing only favorable stories about the war?

We'll never know. The fact remains however that these days journalists don't report the truth anymore - they bow to the pressures of their networks, which in turn are being forced to their knees by either political or financial arm-twisting of the ruling class. And of course we all know that those are the people Bush considers his "base".

Luckily, the winds are changing. With the rise of technology, citizens who are tired and pissed-off at being fed bullshit news by a manipulated media, have taken up their arms and are starting to fire back. They are the bloggers.

Part 2 shall be posted tomorrow.