Free Press my potato

Today, Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post laying out evidence of how the mainstream media (especially television) has given up on investigative journalism. The coverage of the Iraq War, from inception to today, has been worthless. Some highlights:

• The military analysts the networks present are all in collusion with the Pentagon. The Pentagon and White House created a special program of briefings and information flow, accessible only to former generals who were friendly and passed on the message the Pentagon wanted the public to hear. Then the TV networks presented these guys as "independent military analysts."
  
• Corporate executives at news agencies pressured their reporters to cover only Bush-friendly stories. Stick to the patriotic line, they said.
  
• News these days is all about passing on statements made by government officials or candidates. Leading newspeople actually state that it is not their job to start a debate, just to report what was said.
  
• Two conservatives for every liberal. Or only conservatives. That's been the rule.
  
• Reporters were fired for revealing to the public that they were pressured to favor the government.
  

What influence does TV news have? Well, in Brazil, people changed their entire family structure because of soap operas. TV has a profound influence on people's opinions, especially people who don't read much.

While it's infuriating to hear about the travesties that passed for reporting while the administration was making its case for war, it is not a big surprise. What is alarming is that they haven't changed. The New York Times broke the story about the heavily biased "independent" military analysts weeks ago, and there hasn't been a peep about it on the TV networks. They continue to pass off these government mouthpieces as balanced commentators. They continue to race to be the first to report a White House or candidate statement.

We need to demand better from our media.