Bush’s War on the Press

[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: John Nichols & Robert W. McChesney]
[Commentary] With its unprecedented campaign to undermine and, where possible, eliminate independent journalism, the Bush Administration has demonstrated astonishing contempt for the Constitution and considerable fear of an informed public. Over the past five years the Administrations has: 1) corrupting public broadcasting, 2) issued fake video news segments, 3) paid off pundits, 4) turned press conferences into charades, 5) gutted the Freedom of Information Act, 6) obscured coverage of the war in Iraq, and 7) pushed for more consolidated media ownership. The Bush Administration attack on the foundations of self-government demands a response of similar caliber. Under pressure from media-reform activists Congress has begun to push back, with a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate Commerce Committee to limit the ability of federal agencies to produce covert video news segments and to investigate Defense Department spending on propaganda initiatives. But until the Administration is held accountable by Congress for all its assaults on journalism, and until standards are developed to assure that such abuses will not be repeated by future administrations, freedom of the press will exist in name only, with all that suggests for our polity.
http://www.freepress.net/news/12548