A stinging indictment of WaPo reporter Michael Abramowitz for his apparent friendliness with White House officials. Glenn Greenwald's piece is laced with strong examples of the danger of journalists being chummy with their sources. This is an excellent dig -- sure to be a lesson for journalists and an eye-opener for news consumers.

Glenn Greenwald's recurring demand is for news people to apply adversarial scrutiny to information sources, particularly those involving government insiders. The Salon writer's reflective mirror of American journalism should be examined regularly. Is mainstream media able to do that objectively? Doubtful. Greenwald targets sensitive places and no doubt provokes defensive reactions. Here, his targets are broad but one is late NBC titan Tim Russert, whose malleability was appreciated and advantaged by the Cheney/Bush cabal. Greenwald reports that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev accurately criticizes western media for partisan and inaccurate reporting in Georgia. Is there irony to be seen here? Will it be seen?

This is a particularly appropriate opinion piece for NewsTrust's consideration. In this well-written and persuasive editorial, Glenn Greenwald makes a compelling argument about the appropriate relationship that should exist between government sources and the news media. The piece is strongest in its revelations about Tim Russert being manipulated by Dick Cheney. It is somewhat less effective in its use of Gorbachev's NYTimes editorial. Because what Gorby said supports Greenwald's argument, Greenwald used it without consideration of Gorbachev's agenda. Even at this writing, the facts about what happened in South Ossetia are unclear (a major piece appears in today's NYTimes). Nonetheless, Greenwald is absolutely correct, even ... More »

another excellent column from Greenwald and a stinging indictment of MSM's cozy relationship with government and lack of independent reporting.

Finally! Someone like Greenwald really lays it out about how propagandistic journalism has and continues to work in America: first outrageous falsehoods were created then distributed to the '"watchdog press," which then published the Government falsehoods in full, and did so uncritically, without any meaningful investigation, examination, or skepticism -- not just for days, but for weeks, months and, in many instances, for years." But let's not think in the past tense. The concoction of damaging falsehoods continues today masquerading as McCain's "Straight Talk Express."

The article addresses the role of journalism, motivated by the perception that big corporate media has become chummy with the administration and a part of them instead of being an investigative reporting function to inform our democracy. The most interesting point is that the big corporate media retains such a favorable and narcissistic view of themselves, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

This opi9nion -piece has minimal journalistic merit. The author is ignorant about the near universal anti-Bush sentiment among White House correspondents and obviously has never seen a Bush press conference or even one of the daily press briefings at the White House. He has not read any of the academic studies of press slant and bias, every one of which demonstrates the favoritism for the Democrats by the vast majority of media outlets and reporters.

Greenwald's writes with accuracy and fairness. His critiques are very informative and timely. I was appalled with Abramowitz's puerile comments about his relations with the W.H. staff. This man wouldn't qualify for a high school newspaper. American reporters have become merely conduits for the government. They do not cover or investigate a story with any effectiveness. The U.S. media is controlled and run by corporations. This started over 40 years ago & with each decade their control has increased. Corporations have controlled our government as well. Our democracy has been tarnished. The worst is when the fourth estate doesn't do its job to effectively inform the public.