A reader joins me in praising Stephen Colbert but thinks I’ve “gone a bit overboard in [my] interpretation” of the comic’s scathing routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner:
Where has the US corporate media been over the last years? Why have they given the Bush Administration a free ride? Why has the press corps politely questioned the Bush Administration, published their propoganda and failed to clearly point out their lies?
The truth is the US corporate media is too close to power and money. They do not carry out what Amira Hass suggests is the role of journalists “to monitor power.” They are complicit and corrupted. They have crossed a line and can no longer be called “a free press”, and “a free press” is essential for “a free country”.
Yes, our press has performed inadequately, but let’s not forget that Dana Priest, who exposed the CIA “black sites” in Eastern Europe, was recently awarded a Pulitzer. David Gregory and Helen Thomas ask tough questions all the time at White House press briefings. Let’s give them, and our democracy, some credit.
Don’t get me wrong: Press freedom is not something to be complacent about, and I’m aware of the bluster and veiled threats coming from the administration and its allies. There’s also truth to what my respondent writes about corporate influence on the press. But it’s too sweeping to say that all journalists are complicit and corrupted. I even saw Wolf Blitzer making Rumsfeld squirm not very long ago. Too little too late? Certainly. But let’s at least acknowledge it when it happens.
Where are Bush’s poll numbers? 31% and falling? How do you suppose they got so low? Could it be… bad press?
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