Nation Topics - Journalists and Journalism | The Nation

This just in: The Pentagon offers yet another lesson in democracy. Just don't look for any bylines.

Bush brings a robust simplicity to the business of news
management: Where possible, buy journalists to turn out favorable
stories. And if you think you can get away with it, shoot them or blow
them up.

Under pressure from Wall Street, newspaper journalism is being
frog-marched out of the media marketplace. And once it's gone, how will
we know anything?

With professionals at the top forced out and replaced by GOP
fundraisers, the right-wing takeover of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting is now plain to see. Though CPB's Inspector General has
exposed former chair Kenneth Tomlinson's ethical transgressions, what
else are they hiding?

It's one thing for our State Department to plant phony stories in the
media or jam broadcasts in Cuba. It's quite another for conservative
policy analyst Frank Gaffney bolster's George Bush's grudge against Al
Jazeera by arguing that it was "imperative that enemy media be taken
down."

Given the Administration's record of attacking Al Jazeera verbally and
militarily, is it conceivable that President Bush tried to convince
Tony Blair to bomb its international headquarters? Only publication of
an explosive memo will prove it.

Capitalizing on Bob Woodward's revelation that he was one of the first
to learn about Valerie Plame's CIA status, Scooter Libby's legal team
hopes that will get their client off the hook. That turkey won't fly.

Lack of candor is not surprising from Bush or Ahmad Chalabi, but why does the New York Times continue to struggle with the truth about Judith Miller? The Gray Lady might solve the problem by banning anonymous Administration sources in its news reports. If they're going to lie to us anyway, why not under their own names?

Until the Bush Administration is held accountable by Congress for
its propaganda, manipulation of the truth and assaults on journalism,
freedom of the press will exist in name only.

Power-friendly reporters like Judith Miller are easily manipulated
by selective leaks. But what we need now is more civil disobedience by
whistle-blowers exposing renditions, acts of torture and the flagrant
abuse of power.