walford
09-28-2003, 08:18 PM
http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2003/09/26.html
Media Muzzled On Iraq - But By Whom? By Notra Trulock
Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s senior foreign correspondent, thinks that journalists censored themselves during the war in Iraq. She told CNBC’s Tina Brown that "the media was muzzled" and "intimidated" and that a "climate of fear and self-censorship" inhibited coverage of the war. The culprits: the Bush administration and its "foot soldiers at Fox News." (Ironically, one media watchdog has declared CBS the "most pro-war" in its coverage.) But when challenged to cite a story that she was prevented from reporting, she came up short. She could only point to a "question of tone." "It’s really a question of really asking the question," implying that this "climate of fear" stopped reporters from doing their jobs...
...Confirmation that the media have been distorting the news out of Iraq has now come from some surprising sources. John Burns, the Times’ Baghdad bureau chief and a veteran foreign correspondent, had denounced the media’s "absolutely disgraceful performance" in coverage of Iraq...
...He recounts the bribes paid to Iraqi information ministry officials in exchange for favorable treatment. He tells of $600 cell phones given to family members of the director of the ministry as well as bribes to other officials totaling "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from television correspondents "who then behaved as if they were in Belgium." NPR correspondent Ann Garrels confirmed Burns’ account of the bribes in her new book on the war. Book reviews in the Denver Post and USA Today cite her references to the bribes paid to Iraqi officials in return for visas, access and information. USA Today has her citing one mid-level bureaucrat who made at least $200,000 off his share of the bribes. In addition to access and information, Garrels charges that some of her colleagues had "unspoken agreements" with the Iraqis not to report the awful truths about human rights abuses. The USA Today review says she singled out CNN for its efforts to "curry favor" in order to maintain its presence in Baghdad...
Media Muzzled On Iraq - But By Whom? By Notra Trulock
Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s senior foreign correspondent, thinks that journalists censored themselves during the war in Iraq. She told CNBC’s Tina Brown that "the media was muzzled" and "intimidated" and that a "climate of fear and self-censorship" inhibited coverage of the war. The culprits: the Bush administration and its "foot soldiers at Fox News." (Ironically, one media watchdog has declared CBS the "most pro-war" in its coverage.) But when challenged to cite a story that she was prevented from reporting, she came up short. She could only point to a "question of tone." "It’s really a question of really asking the question," implying that this "climate of fear" stopped reporters from doing their jobs...
...Confirmation that the media have been distorting the news out of Iraq has now come from some surprising sources. John Burns, the Times’ Baghdad bureau chief and a veteran foreign correspondent, had denounced the media’s "absolutely disgraceful performance" in coverage of Iraq...
...He recounts the bribes paid to Iraqi information ministry officials in exchange for favorable treatment. He tells of $600 cell phones given to family members of the director of the ministry as well as bribes to other officials totaling "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from television correspondents "who then behaved as if they were in Belgium." NPR correspondent Ann Garrels confirmed Burns’ account of the bribes in her new book on the war. Book reviews in the Denver Post and USA Today cite her references to the bribes paid to Iraqi officials in return for visas, access and information. USA Today has her citing one mid-level bureaucrat who made at least $200,000 off his share of the bribes. In addition to access and information, Garrels charges that some of her colleagues had "unspoken agreements" with the Iraqis not to report the awful truths about human rights abuses. The USA Today review says she singled out CNN for its efforts to "curry favor" in order to maintain its presence in Baghdad...