Freedom of the Press (Watch What you Say)
Doesn't she know she's only helping the Enemy with comments like these??
Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
On last week's Topic A With Tina Brown on CNBC, Brown, the former Talk magazine editor, asked comedian Al Franken, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and Amanpour if "we in the media, as much as in the administration, drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the war."
Said Amanpour: "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."
Brown then asked Amanpour if there was any story during the war that she couldn't report.
"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone," Amanpour said. "It's a question of being rigorous. It's really a question of really asking the questions. All of the entire body politic in my view, whether it's the administration, the intelligence, the journalists, whoever, did not ask enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the highest levels..."
Christine, there are people all around the world who hate us for our freedoms, and going around demanding a free press only makes them stronger!
Posted by jsmooth995 at September 16, 2003 04:32 PM
I saw O'Reilly's response to this on Fox. He was like "We (Fox) intimidated you?... C'mon!"
I say those newscasters get what they deserve. They know the way the cover the news is bullshit and spoon-fed, and they feel helpless to do anything about it.
Just like the rest of us.
I'm an Australian, and I'd have to agree with BigL. Sections of the international community don't hate the U.S. for their freedoms - they hate the U.S. powerstructure for it's cultural and ecomomic imperialism, it's gunboat diplomacy and it's bare faced and rediculously trasperant lies used to disguise it's international agenda. If the mass media in America were in fact free and informative, the American people may have more of a say in directing their nation. A free press is for your benifit, not 'your enemy's'. Think about what you're saying - you need restricted, biased and controlled media to protect your freedoms?? Get off the grass.
