There must be an external check and balance on the executive branch, and that will only happen if the media abandon the bended-knee ass-up spread position from which they have covered the Bush misadministration.
The willingness of most mainstream media outlets to continue to treat seriously the absurd and propagandistic claims of this president and his aides is at least as damaging to the discourse and, by extension, to the American experiment as the collapse of congressional oversight. To allow the administration and its supporters to suggest, at this late stage in the disaster that is the Iraq invasion and occupation, that challenges to the president's proposal to escalate the war are disrespectful of U.S. troops serving there is to perpetuate a lie that warps the national debate in a manner that ensures more Americans and Iraqis will be killed.- from a must-read editorial in the Capital Times.
The president and his dwindling circle of supporters certainly have a right to make their pronouncements. But they do not have a right to expect that lies and spin will be swallowed by the media and then regurgitated into the living rooms of Americans.
Unfortunately, that is what happened Wednesday night, as a presidential address that should have been met with unbridled skepticism was instead treated as a meaningful statement regarding the future U.S. presence in Iraq.
Just as it would be wrong for the media to censor Bush, it is equally wrong for the media to allow the madness of this modern-day King George to infect the discourse without the immediate application of the antidote of truth.
Handing the bully pulpit over to a president who has repeatedly misused his position to deceive the Congress and the American people is not journalism; it is stenography.
And make no mistake: A "free" press that practices stenography to power is no different from the "kept" press of a totalitarian state.
Another great editorial here.
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