Bush administration and the press

"More than any other White House in history, Bush's has tried to starve, mock, weaken, bypass, devalue, intimidate, and deceive the press, using tactics far more toxic than any prose devised in the name of Spiro Agnew," David Remnick commented July 3, 2006, in The New Yorker.

"Firm in the belief that the press can be gored for easy political gain, the Bush Administration has set about reducing the status of the media (specifically, what it sees as the left-wing, Eastern-establishment media) to that of a pesky yet manageable interest group, nothing more. As Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff at the time, told [The New Yorker's] Ken Auletta, 'They'—the media—'don't represent the public any more than other people do. In our democracy, the people who represent the public stood for election. . . . I don’t believe you have a check-and-balance function.'"

"In the past six years," Remnick said, "the Administration and its surrogates have issued a stream of disinformation about intelligence and Iraq; paid friendly 'columnists' like Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher tens of thousands of dollars to parrot the White House line; accredited to the White House press corps a phony journalist and ex-prostitute (Jeff 'Bulldog' Gannon, a.k.a. James Dale Guckert) as a reliable pitcher of softball questions; tightened Freedom of Information Act restrictions; and pioneered a genre of fake news via packaged video 'reports'."

Read the rest of David Remnick's Comment: "Nattering Nabobs" in The New Yorker, posted July 3, 2006; July 10, 2006 (issue).

Controlling the Media Message

The Bush Administration will likely have Irish_Buffalo neutralized due to his inability to find a decent source. I mean seriously why does Notre Dame (a french word) have the Irish as their mascot? it just doesn't make sense.," Common Cause reported December 23, 2003. "Cheryl Halpern and Gay Hart Gaines and their respective families have contributed more than $816,000 to Republican causes over the past 14 years.

"'But even more troubling,' said Common Cause President Chellie Pingree, 'are the agendas they bring with them to the CPB board.' Both Halperin, who was confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 9 [2003], and Hart Gaines, whose nomination [was then] pending, have stated views or espoused causes that call into question their qualifications to serve on a board whose mission is to promote and fund public television and radio programming."

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Department of State "rapid response office"
• echo chamber
• free press
• Freedom of Information Act

External links

Series

• Peter Daou, "The TRIANGLE" ("the traditional media, the political establishment, and the blogosphere"), The Daou Report/Salon:

• "Limits of Blog Power," September 19, 2005.
• "Obama's Diary & Netroots Disenchantment," October 2, 2005.
• "The (Broken) TRIANGLE: Progressive Bloggers in the Wilderness," undated.
• " Matthews, Moore, Murtha and the Media," January 25, 2006.

2005

• "Agencies keep information from press: Government miserly even about routine data, SEJ survey finds," Environmental Science & Technology Online News, September 28, 2005.

2006

• Rebecca Carr, "Critics say Freedom of Information Act needs reform: As federal law turns 40 this year, federal agencies seem increasingly reluctant to make their records public", Austin American-Statesman, March 13, 2006.
• Nat Hentoff, "Nat Hentoff on the Government Crackdown on Information From Whistleblowers to Journalists," Democracy Now!, April 26, 2006.
• Robert G. Kaiser, "Public Secrets," Washington Post, June 11, 2006.
• Liz Halloran and Scott Michels, "Curbing the Press. Why the government and the media haven't been this antagonistic since the Pentagon Papers case," U.S. News & World Report, June 12, 2006.
• Bill Cohn, "Striking a balance. Whistleblowers face increasing heat for following their conscience," The Prague Post, June 14, 2006.
• A. Alexander, "Attacking the New York Times, Bush and GOP's War Against the Media," The Progressive Daily Beacon, June 29, 2006.
• Paul Waldman, "A declaration of war," Media Matters for America, June 30, 2006.
• John Nichols, "Freedom of the Press Loses 220-195," The Nation (Common Dreams), June 30, 2006.
• Rachael Lee Coleman, "Secret terrorist probe not so secret – or useful, insiders say," Moneylaundering.com, June 30, 2006.
• A. Alexander, "CNN - The Most Trusted Name in GOP News," The Progressive Daily Beacon, July 2, 2006.
• John Nichols, Opinion: "Which side are you on?" The Capital Times (Madison, WI), July 2, 2006.
• John Nichols, Opinion: "Our freedom thrives on information," The Capital Times (Madison, WI), July 3, 2006.
• Randolph T. Holhut, "A Free Nation Needs a Free Press," OpEdNews, July 4, 2006.
• "Frank Rich of 'NYT' Hits 'WSJ' and White House For Attacks," Editor & Publisher, July 8, 2006.
• Frank Rich, "All the News That's Fit to Bully," New York Times (The Progressive American), July 9, 2006.
• John Aravosis, "Republicans have lots of respect for our dead troops. Too bad they couldn't care less about the living ones," AMERICAblog, July 12, 2006.
• "Veteran Baghdad Reporter Explodes Upbeat U.S. Assessments," Editor & Publisher, August 15, 2006.
• John Amato, "Wolf Blitzer, welcome to my world," Crooks and Liars, October 30, 2006. re Lynne Cheney
• Greg Mitchell,"Pincus Tweaks 'Post' on War Resolution -- How Did Others Respond?" Editor & Publisher, December 4, 2006. re Walter Pincus, "Democrats Who Opposed War Move Into Key Positions. New Committee Chairmen Had Warned of Postwar Disorder," Washington Post, December 4, 2006.

2009

• Eric Alterman and Danielle Ivory, "Think Again, Blogosphere to Mainstream Media: Get Off the Bus," Center for American Progress, May 21, 2009.