Newsweek gets b*tchslapped by the U.S. government

[J. J.]

Acctually, what happened, as I pointed out in my thread, was that other news organizations went to investigate this and found that the claims were totally baseless.

Why did those g asshole news organizations not investigate anything Bush said about Iraq? f**ck them all.

What can you do? The bottom line is that reporters are nothing but ordinary civilians with no real skills armed with printing presses and cameras. They have access to no more than we do, which is what our government feeds us. Even if they wanted to break out of the mold and try and get some non-government sources, they would be attacked as incredible and anti-American. Yet their current set-up is profitable enough.

In all fairness, they have something, contacts.  Here they failed.

If the story was accurate and did "harm America's interests," I would still say publish it.  I'm faily certain that any administration would feel that a story would "harm America's interest," but might actually harm their own agenda.  Should we let any administration dictate to us as to what is America's interest?

[Beet]

So, Newsweek has apologized and retracted and kowtowed like a Japanese woman and they're still getting savaged? I don't know why but this is the kind of this that really pisses me off. What do they want them to do? Intimidation of the press...disgusting. The stuff of 1930's Germany. Personally I want my media to be unhindered in what they feel they can say without being rolled over by the White House like an iron steamroller over a fat lob of dough.

[A18]

Yes, libel has never been illegal anywhere except 1930s Germany.

[dazzleman]

So, Newsweek has apologized and retracted and kowtowed like a Japanese woman and they're still getting savaged? I don't know why but this is the kind of this that really pisses me off. What do they want them to do? Intimidation of the press...disgusting. The stuff of 1930's Germany. Personally I want my media to be unhindered in what they feel they can say without being rolled over by the White House like an iron steamroller over a fat lob of dough.

I'd agree with you if not for the nefarious political agenda of much of the media.  I just don't trust those people.  I don't view the media as a watchdog against corruption, but part of the corruption itself.  If they didn't print lies because those lies are thought to advance their political agenda, they wouldn't have to worry about being intimidated.

[2952-0-0]

Hopefully the government will realize that if they want to "torture" these people or whatever they want to do, they gotta kick the media out of these areas and punish whoever leaks this stuff. If we learned anything from Vietnam, hopefully it's that we can't allow the media to cover the war.

Get that piece of sh*t out of your sig. And second I am willing to bet that if we lived in the 1930s and we had internet then you would be praising Adolf Hitler.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Appearantly the Newsweek story was cleared by the Pentagon. It was only after some unrest that lead to deaths somewhere that the Bush adminstration decided to blame the unrest on Newsweek and claim the story wasn't factual.

If we never relied on anonymous sources, we'd never have gone to war with Iraq. The hypocrity is overwhelming.

[The Duke]

Appearantly the Newsweek story was cleared by the Pentagon. It was only after some unrest that lead to deaths somewhere that the Bush adminstration decided to blame the unrest on Newsweek and claim the story wasn't factual.

If we never relied on anonymous sources, we'd never have gone to war with Iraq. The hypocrity is overwhelming.

Newsweek lied, kids died.  Yes, the hypocrisy IS overwhelming.

[Beet]

So, Newsweek has apologized and retracted and kowtowed like a Japanese woman and they're still getting savaged? I don't know why but this is the kind of this that really pisses me off. What do they want them to do? Intimidation of the press...disgusting. The stuff of 1930's Germany. Personally I want my media to be unhindered in what they feel they can say without being rolled over by the White House like an iron steamroller over a fat lob of dough.

I'd agree with you if not for the nefarious political agenda of much of the media.  I just don't trust those people.  I don't view the media as a watchdog against corruption, but part of the corruption itself.  If they didn't print lies because those lies are thought to advance their political agenda, they wouldn't have to worry about being intimidated.

The media's agenda can be transparently viewed by their hyperactive coverage of every irrelevant high drama from Jennifer Wilbanks to Michael Jackson to whenever cute little girls go missing or are killed. They are there to make money, so they are there to entertain. Did the media, as an aftermath of their successes in turning public opinoin against Vietnam and exposing Watergate, have a left-learning tilt in the 1980s? Yes, you could say the Reagan revolution came late to that aspect of the establishment. During the 1990s, I think though the trend was away from political bias and towards frivolity and "talking head" punditry- a game where there more provocative you were, the more successful. It was this freewheeling, attention-hogging environment of the late 1990s that led to the rise of the likes of Ann Coulter. During the 2000s, the media has again gained a sort of political bias overall. But now, there have emerged a clear, distinct and influential right-wing media which is very effective in many ways.

[opebo]

Hopefully the government will realize that if they want to "torture" these people or whatever they want to do, they gotta kick the media out of these areas and punish whoever leaks this stuff. If we learned anything from Vietnam, hopefully it's that we can't allow the media to cover the war.

That's right.  The media wanted us to lose Vietnam, and they want us to lose this war too.  They'll do everything in their power to make it happen, so we can't trust them.  The media must be treated as an enemy, and manipulated warily if possible.

Any reasonable person wants the aggressors to lose this war.

[A18]

Plus some others, such as yourself