Quote:
|
Regarding unanimity of opinion in the media, which is it this time Lurch? The government controlled mainstream media supporting the Republicans or the Liberal Media out to get GW Bush?
|
Not sure what you mean by this question, as I don't recall ever having said anything about media bias. For what it is worth, it is pretty clear to me that by and large, the US media is right-wing - at least the shows that are popular. Even CBS and the NY Times can only be described as moderate, IMO, relative to the rest of the world media.
Now, as to my actual point, sorry if it was not clear. I happen to get BBC news, and the questions they were asking in the lead-up to the war were dramatically different from the most critical US network, CBS. Given that Britain was actually involved with and supporting the war (the government) and their media is government owned, this was shocking to me. For example, have you ever seen a negative story about GE on NBC news. If you strictly watched US news, you got a very different set of information about Bush's war than if you watched news from a US ally. Further, once the war actually started, you got dramatically different stories from networks with 'embedded' reporters than from those without. And this does not even get into the degree to which the US Army controlled what embedded reporters were allowed to say, which was unprecedented.
Going another step, both Bush's supporters and detractors agree he has run the tightest ship of any White House in memory. The White House has controlled the agenda of press conferences and had fewer 'leaks' than any administration in memory. To me, this speaks to a media that has been cowed by the president rather than any great accomplishment for Bush.