Last night PBS replayed last years’ Bill Moyers documentary – Buying the War. Here is the video of it. Watching it the second time I realized the story was not so much that the mainstream media marched to war with George without questioning all the dishonest data the Administration used, but they did so out of fear. Fear of the well oiled Right-wing Smear Machine that has changed the face of mainstream journalism. The man with the oil can is Roger Ailes who runs Fox News and as Rupert Murdock’s right hand man, may soon be running the Wall Street Journal.
Reporters who did not tow the Administration’s bullcrap knew they would be smeared as un-American, unpatriotic, and as Bill O’Reilly said hundreds of times, labeled Bad Americans. The process is coordinated within Fox News to include The Bill O’Reilly Show, Fox News Sunday, Hannity and Combs, the actual Fair and Balanced news itself, and with Ailes being one of Rush Limbuagh’s best friends, moves the machine across talk radio where thousands of Right-wing hosts scream “un-American media” to tens of million of people 24/7. This coordination also goes into Congress who use C-SPAN coverage of Special Sessions and from the Well of Congress itself.
This McCarthy machine has changed how print, network and cable news operate. No one from the mainstream media could decry that coming war without suffering the McCarthyism conservatives do so well.
The media moguls, CEOs and the editors readily admit their compliance, rationalizing it by saying their paradigm has shifted from JOURNALISM to REPORTING. That opposition to the White House must come from the Democrats not the press.
Of course the media put the Administration’s war drum rants on page A-1 or top story on CNN while any Democratic response is on page A-13 or the middle of the night on cable. The conservative smear machine also keeps Democrats in contested districts from speaking out fearing they will put their re-election at risk.
Which leaves who to say the emperor has no clothes? The progressive blogs. And what has been the coordinated Fox News/Talk Radio McCarthyism over the past two weeks? The Daily Kos is a “Nazi Hate Site” which had a “Hate Fest” in Chicago. Which is repeated ad nauseam across the entire conservative spectrum.
As the recent Supreme Court ruling decided, those with the most money have the most free speech.