I would like to personally thank former White House press secretary Scott McClellan for writing “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” and drawing attention back to 2002 and 2003 and the run up to the Iraq War. Although his criticisms about the so called “liberal” media not being critical enough about the reasons for going to war is hypocritical to say the least, I mean which is it? Is the media liberal or are the major networks and newspapers owned by huge corporations who are wed to a conservative belief system and that belief system influences the stories the American public is permitted to read, see and hear.

The bottom line of all of this is that the book, “What Happened” focuses nation wide attention on the lies and manipulation that led us to launch a pre-emptive and unnecessary war against Iraq. The complicity of mainstream media in persuading the American public to support the Iraq war is the untold story. Reports are now beginning to surface about the impact big media had not only on the stories but the reporters that created the stories. As www.prwatch.org recently reported…

Former MSNBC correspondent Jessica Yellin admitted on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 last night that during the run-up to the war, “the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war that was presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings.” Appearing as part of a panel discussing Scott McClellan’s book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, Yellin alleged that “the higher the president’s approval ratings … the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president.” Hardball host Chris Matthews also admitted in a speech at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on Monday that MSNBC bosses were “basically pro-war during the war.” His remark came during a discussion of top-down editorial control at the network, which Matthews denied existed.

McClellan writes that President Bush sold the Iraq war to Americans using a sophisticated “political propaganda campaign” aimed at “manipulating sources of public opinion” and “downplaying the major reason for going to war.” Bush’s former mouthpiece also says the Bush aides “had outlined a strategy for carefully orchestrating the coming campaign to aggressively sell the {Iraq] war…it was all about manipulating sources of opinion to the president’s advantage…”

For the last 5 years I’ve been frustrated and upset about the unwillingness to fully explore why and how we got into this endless war. There seems to be a flip attitude by the war’s defenders including John McCain that the reasons for going to war are old news and not worth exploration or discussion. I beg to differ. If we are to learn from this fiasco and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again, we must as a nation review the events of 2002 and 2003 very closely and that includes the actions of the Bush administration in willfully manipulating public opinion through news coverage. People often forget that the airwaves belong to the American public. We as a nation through the oversight of the Federal Communications Commission license corporations and individuals to use the air waves for TV and radio broadcasts but the airwaves belong to the American public and thus are subject to oversight and regulation of their content.

When I filed my wrongful termination lawsuit against Clear Channel in the summer of 2003, I was contacted by dozens of media outlets and took part in many radio, print and TV interviews. Many reporters told me that they had been stifled in their coverage of the war by their employers including Clear Channel and other major media corporations. These reporters were told to either stop reporting or make the reports line up with the Bush administrations talking points. In other words corporate media and their managers stifled free and wide-ranging discussion of the reasoning for the war. As a journalist and a life long radio broadcaster this appalls me, especially since the topic of discussion was war.

Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was approved, an estimated 10,000 jobs minimum has been eliminated in the field of radio broadcasting. Far too many reporters found it necessary to go along to get along to maintain employment in an especially rough climate. The corporate take over of our main stream media has hurt not only the professionals who work in the industry but also the American public’s access to free and unfettered reporting of vital issues of national importance.

If Scott McClellan’s book draws attention back to this issue and reporters can now come forward and talk about what happened, all the better. This is a discussion we must have for the good of the country.

Read about McClellan’s covert assistance with another book about the lies that led to war…

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200806030001

Dan Rather addressed the 2008 National Conference On Media Reform in Minneapolis on Saturday, where he warned of the dangers of corporate media ownership. Rather told the crowd:

“Now, I have spent my entire life in for-profit news, and I happen to think that it does not have to be this way. I have worked for news owners who, while they may have regarded their news divisions as an occasional irritant, chose to turn that irritant into a pearl of public trust. But today, sadly, it seems that the conglomerates that have control over some of the biggest pieces of this public trust would just as soon spit that irritant out.

So what does this mean for us tonight, and what is to be done?

It means that we need to be on the alert for where, when, and how our news media bows to undue government influence. And you need to let news organizations know, in no uncertain terms, that you won’t stand for it…that you, as news consumers, are capable of exerting pressure of your own.

It means that we need to continue to let our government know that, when it comes to media consolidation, enough is enough. Too few voices are dominating, homogenizing, and marginalizing the news. We need to demand that the American people get something in exchange for the use of airwaves that belong, after all, to the people.

It means that we need to ensure that the Internet, where free speech reigns and where journalism does not have to pass through a corporate filter… remains free.

We need to say, loud and clear, that we don’t want big corporations enjoying preferred access to - or government acting as the gatekeeper for - this unique platform for independent journalism.”