February 13, 2007

Frontline: News War Readers didn't need a week of front-page stories about diaper-wearing astronauts and the alleged cultural significance of Anna Nicole Smith to tell them that the Fourth Estate is having an identity crisis. There's also last week's Pentagon inspector general report criticizing the Bush administration's manipulation of prewar intelligence, reminding Americans that most of the Beltway media danced to the White House's drumbeat to the Iraq war four years ago.

"In a four-and-a-half-hour special, News War, FRONTLINE examines the political, cultural, legal, and economic forces challenging the news media today and how the press has reacted in turn. Through interviews with key figures in the print and electronic media over the past four decades -- and with unequaled, behind-the-scenes access to some of today's most important news organizations, FRONTLINE traces the recent history of American journalism, from the Nixon administration's attacks on the media to the post-Watergate popularity of the press, to the new challenges presented by the war on terror and other global forces now changing -- and challenging -- the role of the press in our society." I personally have significant questions as to whether it's even possible at all that the Bush administration manipulated journalists in the run-up to war. It seems likely I will be tuning in to find out. Apologies for the Pepsi-Blueness of the post, but this is something that MATTERS to the DemOCRACY of the COUNTRY! what with the voting and the scandals and the m'HOY glavin.

posted by petebest 17 years ago