"U.S. Newspapers silent on Cheney investigation"

[GOPFighter]

This is the latest MoveOn.org action alert.
http://www.moveon.org/mediacorps/mediacorps27.html

I received the action alert a few hours ago and since I'm off work today (cool!), I decided to write the following Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post. I hope others will do the same.

======================================================

Editor, The Washington Post:

In today's “Media Notes,” Howard Kurtz points out that the number of Democrats who believe the media is biased in favor of the Republicans has increased dramatically in the past few years. According to Kurtz, "twenty-nine percent of Democrats surveyed by the Pew Research Center say that campaign coverage is tilted toward the GOP, up from 19 percent in 2000." Count me as one of those 29 percent.

Case in point. The Center for American Progress, in it's Progress Report of January 9 reports that "international news sources report that French law enforcement authorities have made Vice President Dick Cheney the target of a criminal investigation for his role in a massive bribery scandal during his time as CEO of Halliburton." The newsletter points out that last May Halliburton admitted that under Chaney's stewardship, it paid "$2.4 million in bribes to Nigerian officials to get favorable tax treatment." What makes this so newsworthy is that this case will likely be prosecuted under an international treaty (signed by the U.S.) making bribery of foreign public officials a criminal offense.

Big news, right? Well according to MoveOn.org, “11 of America's 12 highest-circulation daily papers (including the Washington Post) haven't covered Cheney's inclusion in the investigation at all,” even though it has been thoroughly covered in the international press for three weeks.

It is possible that the Post has someone investigating this story as I write and that the paper’s editors are not ready to run the story yet. However, when the international press is hot on a story that makes the current administration look bad for three weeks and the U.S. press is nearly universally silent, one might conclude that either the mainstream press doesn't want to make this administration look bad, or they are afraid of White House retaliation.

Either way, I believe we can expect the number of Democrats who believe the press is biased to continue to increase in the future.

Respectfully,

[yellowcanine]

1. It is curious that this isn't front page news in the U.S.

Does anyone doubt that the Washington Times and Chicago Tribune would be all over this story if Clinton would be involved?

[Skip Intro]

2. How can the White House retaliate against the press?

"However, when the international press is hot on a story that makes the current administration look bad for three weeks and the U.S. press is nearly universally silent, one might conclude that either the mainstream press doesn't want to make this administration look bad, or they are afraid of White House retaliation."

Maybe exclude certain media outlets' reporters from press conferences? But that would only be a threat if a small minority of the press ran bad news stories for bushco; the regime coulnd't cut access to all media except faux.

That just jumped out at me. How could the WH retaliate against media?

[camero]

4. Plane crashes, suicides, etc.

[kayell]

6. Anthrax letters....

nt

[GOPFighter]

5. Retaliation?

A news organization thrives on information. Ignore a paper's reporters, withhold infomation it gives to other news outlets, all kinds of ways to retaliate. Maybe you could ask Ambassador Wilson about WH retaliation...?

[camero]

3. This is a story on a par with Watergate

And American media is largely silent. You would think that as what the press descibing themselves as the "fourth estate" they would love to be able to take a president down just to show them their power.

Or have the RW (like the Borg) infested all of our institutions?
The repubs are a cancer on humanity.

[el_gato]

7. Here's my letter to NYT

Dear NYT,
I know that your a fucking whore for the elitist pigs
who control our government that's why I canceled my
scrip to your rag years ago. However, if you wish to maintain
even your phoney mantle of journalism maybe
you oughta pull Cheney's dick out of your mouth and
tell the truth for once. You people make me sick.
Sincerely,
xxx

:evilgrin:

[GOPFighter]

8. I see you read between my lines!

:evilgrin:

[NewJeffCT]

9. not angry enough

Just kidding.