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Is the US Press in Bed with the Whitehouse? |
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Written by Staff Writer
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May 02, 2007 at 09:25 AM |
In a surprising move the New York Times has confirmed that it will no longer attend the annual White House Correspondents Association dinners in Washington. The decision by the NYT was revealed in a column by Frank Rich, writing that the dinner "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows."
It also comes days after a Congressional hearing looked into charges that the Pentagon had, for propaganda purposes, fabricated an elaborate account about the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, who was eulogized by President Bush at the 2004 WHCA dinner.
The new WCHA president, Ann Compton of ABC news, says claims the dinner is unethical and unproffessional are "way overdone"- however concern is growing as the sector becomes more aware of recent failings in reporting the White Houses woes.
A particularly interesting story is that highlighted by Greg Palast, an investigative journalist.
IN AN E-MAIL uncovered and released by the House Judiciary Committee last month, Tim Griffin, once Karl Rove’s right-hand man, gloated that “no [U.S.] national press picked up” a BBC Television story reporting that the Rove team had developed an elaborate scheme to challenge the votes of thousands of African Americans in the 2004 election.
Griffin wasn’t exactly right. The Los Angeles Times did run a follow-up article a few days later in which it reported the findings. But he was essentially right. Most of the major U.S. newspapers and the vast majority of television news programs ignored the story even though it came at a critical moment just weeks before the election.
I’ve been through this before, too many times. Take this investigative report, also buried in the U.S.: Back in December 2000, I received two computer disks from the office of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Analysis of the data, plus documents that fell my way, indicated that Harris’ office had purged thousands of African Americans from Florida’s voter rolls as “felons.” Florida now admits that many of these voters were not in fact felons. Nevertheless, the blacklisting helped cost Al Gore the White House.
I reported on the phony felon purge in Britain’s Guardian and Observer and on the BBC while Gore was still in the race, while the count was still on.
Yet the story of the Florida purge never appeared in the U.S. daily papers or on television. Until months later, that is, after the Supreme Court had decided the election, when it was picked up by the Washington Post and others.
U.S. papers delayed the story until the U.S. Civil Rights Commission issued a report saying our Guardian/BBC story was correct: Innocents lost their vote. At that point, protected by the official imprimatur, American editors felt it safe enough to venture out with the story. But by then, George W. Bush could read it from his chair in the Oval Office.
It is most disturbing that such important pieces of news can be widely known about here in Britain but don't make it to the US for fear of the repurcussions of a paranoid yet still powerful Whitehouse.
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Last Updated ( May 02, 2007 at 09:29 AM )
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