Kamiya is an astute commentator. In this excellent essay, he not only provides a high level critique of the media's failure after 9/11, goes deep and specific with vivid examples and pointed allegations. His elucidation of causal factors are nuanced and still cogent, and he provides excellent counter examples of media successes.

Dhar Jamail, an american Journalist reported what was really going on in Iraq, but so far has seldom been printed or heard by the American people. NOt all journalists were in bed with bush, those that were/are not are still not getting printed.

One of the best analyses I have read on the pre-war and early war coverage.

Garys ' article is well researched and articulated clearly. I hope his view that mainstream media has stopped slavishly following the party line and is really engaged in genuine journalism is correct.

The author blathers a bit, but makes some excellent points on the whole. I can't say I agree that journalists' coverage is improving/becoming tougher to the degree that the author believes it is, but then this is an op/ed piece and therefore a subjective issue.

It didn't start with 911 and it hasn't stopped with Iraq (from the Daily Howler): Readers, Al Gore said he invented the Internet! And: Al Gore said he discovered Love Canal! And: Al Gore said he inspired Love Story! Those tales were bogus, but they fit the script - so the New York Times kept printing them. Indeed, the Times invented two of these bogus tales - bogus tales which changed the worldÕs history. But yesterday, Krugman, playing it dumb, said that Fox has been mangling your discourse! He specifically mentioned the Whitewater hoax - which started in the New York Times, when Fox didnÕt even exist."

I share the author's outrage, so that makes it tempting to cheer with lots of stars in the rating, but this does not say anything new. It would have been more interesting if the author had done some reporting rather than just opining and in particular, for example, explored what happened in the ABC newsroom [led by the extraordinary Jennings] that made it the one network that it was possible to watch without screaming at the television.

(Could only read the first two paragraphs at Salon before looking for more triggered an access problem.) The first two paragraphs were interesting.

It wasn't Bill Maher who said the terrorists were not cowards; it was Dinesh D'Souza on the same show. I worry about the overall accuracy of a piece when the writer is willing to be a party to perpetuating incorrect data.

First, a small but salient point: media is the plural of medium. Newpapers are a news medium. Television is a news medium. Together, newspapers and television are news MEDIA. This article like so many others--including ones by those in the business who should know better--continue to repeat this basic error. If we're in the business of communicating, then let's use the American language properly. That said, the article is well positioned to discuss the points of journalism's decades-old history of bad performances, and in the case of Iraq, absolute failure. But the article misses the most important reason for the failure of journalism--centralization of media ownership. Under the "only special interests matter, the Hell with ... More »