Hmm, PBS Frontline tonight.... Secrets, Sources and Spin

[AnnInLa]

PBS 'Frontline' Tonight Tackles Media and the War



Published: February 13, 2007 7:45 AM ET

NEW YORK The timing could hardly be better. "News War" is a "Frontline" probe into the modern Fourth Estate, embattled from many directions. And, by chance, it coincides with the imminent conclusion to a Washington free-for-all that has ensnared the news media: the perjury trial of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

snip

The first hour of the four-part series does a splendid job of untangling the snarl of events that began in early 2003 with the Bush administration's successful drive to win support from the public, and the media, for invading Iraq.

Airing at 9 p.m. today on PBS, "Secrets, Sources & Spin" lays out how the government peddled its point of view to major media outlets by planting confidential tips that supported administration claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Such tips sparked stories that the government then cited as bolstering its claim.



"The way that the press was sold and spun . . . and just fooled by the White House in the run-up to the war represents more than just a missed story," media analyst Jay Rosen says in the film. "How can one say that we have a watchdog press after a performance like that?"

But this represents just one battle for "News War," in which investigative journalist Lowell Bergman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter whose expose for CBS' "60 Minutes" was dramatized in the film "The Insider," finds the news media locked in a protracted conflict with the White House and much of government. It's a conflict that reaches back four decades to the Nixon administration, which famously warred with the news media before being undone by The Washington Post's exposure of the Watergate scandal.

On Feb. 20, "Secrets, Sources & Spin" continues with an inquiry into how much the press can reveal about secret government programs in the war on terror without jeopardizing national security.


more at:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003545023

[ThomWV]

1. I Saw The Advertisment Last Night - Don't Miss It

I plan to watch this one.

[Supersedeas]

5. Great advice -- I will not miss this one.

[napi21]

2. This show is on tonight at 10PM & repeats at 1AM here EST.

I was going to set my TV reminder and discovered it's on at the same time as Boston Legal!!! GRRRR. So I checked and found that it repeats at 1AM. That's GREAT, cause BL is becoming one of my FAVORITE weekly shows!

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Frontline consistently has the best political documentaries on TV.

They do their research and just lay it out there and let you form your own opinions. Not a lot of hype and sensationalism, just facts and resources.

[blm]

4. Good reminder. Also, don't miss thread on manipulation of news via Buzzflash.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x190957

[DeepModem Mom]

6. K&R!

[ThomWV]

7. K&R

I normally don't watch this show. We have Direct TV with local stations for the Pittsburgh area (about 90 miles from here) which we simply do not watch very much. I only pay for the local service so we can get Charlie Rose and an occasional Nova but not much else.

Frontline, at least the episodes I've seen, tends to be extremely well researched and unbiased. Tonight's message is, in my opnion, as important as Global Warming.