Propagandists First, Journalists Second

more: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19969.htm

Propagandists First, Journalists Second

How the New York Times Won 2004 for Bush

By Ted Rall

21/05/08 "ICH" -- -- Should the news media be patriotic? When a journalist uncovers a government secret, which comes first–national security or the public’s right to know?

In the United States, reporters consider themselves Americans first, journalists second. That means consulting the government before going public with a state secret. “When I was at ABC,” James Bamford told Time in 2006, “we always checked with the Administration in power when we thought we had something of concern, and there was usually some way to work it out.”

In a new book about the Bush Administration’s efforts to expand the president’s powers at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches, the assumption that the press shouldn’t publish security-sensitive stories is so hard-wired that New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau accepts it as a given. But it’s a very American concept, and one that relies on the presumption that the U.S. government may make mistakes, but is largely a force for good. In other countries, the relationship between rulers and the press is strictly adversarial.

They were the willing tools of fascists.
It will take longer than I will probably live for
these bushevik mouthpieces to establish any credibility.
For now we've got foreign news and fragments of a
formerly free press.
THe only domestic new remaining can be found on "Democracy Now."
The BBC and Reuters are good sources over the border.