Read this!!! It is an incredible NY Times article revealing how
politicians control what the mainstream media prints. If this is not
bi-partisan censorship at the highest levels then I don't know what is.
This is a trend that has been building for some number of years
and makes the media a willing accomplice in government propagandizing.
Not only should we be outraged at this blatant control of media by
politicians we should lambaste the media for allowing the polical
"machines" to control what they write - they are, after all, suppose to
be the agents who inform us when they find government misconduct. Kudus
to Jeremy Peters for having the guts to write the piece. The silence
from the rest of the media is deafening. George
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative.
They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to
reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major
condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be
quoted and attributed by name.
Most reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the president’s top
strategists, grudgingly agree. After the interviews, they review their
notes, check their tape recorders and send in the juiciest sound bites
for review.
The verdict from the campaign — an operation that prides itself on
staying consistently on script — is often no, Barack Obama does not
approve this message.
The push and pull over what is on the record is one of journalism’s
perennial battles. But those negotiations typically took place case by
case, free from the red pens of press minders. Now, with a millisecond
Twitter news cycle and an unforgiving, gaffe-obsessed media culture,
politicians and their advisers are routinely demanding that reporters
allow them final editing power over any published quotations.
Quote approval is standard practice for the Obama campaign, used by many
top strategists and almost all midlevel aides in Chicago and at the
White House — almost anyone other than spokesmen who are paid to be
quoted. (And sometimes it applies even to them.) It is also commonplace
throughout Washington and on the campaign trail.
No comments:
Post a Comment