Media, government duel in 'perfect storm'

MEDIA, GOVERNMENT IN 'PERFECT STORM'
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Peter Johnson]
In 1971, when The New York Times won a major victory for press freedom in the Pentagon Papers case, mainstream media such as newspapers and the Big Three broadcast networks were "fantastically profitable, strong institutions," reporter Lowell Bergman says. But today, Bergman says, "network news is in decline, and newspapers are seriously threatened" at a time when both are locked in a battle with the Bush administration about controlling the national agenda and what government secrets should -- or should not be -- reported. "We seem to be at this critical juncture, a perfect storm," says Bergman, whose four-part PBS Frontline special, News War, kicks off tonight. Bergman traces American journalism from the Nixon administration's attacks to the post-Watergate popularity of the media to recent obstacles presented by the war on terror, and to the changing economics of the media business and challenges posed by the Web.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20070213/d_mediamix13.art.htm

* New PBS Doc Misses the Media/War Story
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/47951/