'The Washington Post Is a Neocon Propaganda Sheet'

[leftchick]

Published on The Smirking Chimp (http://smirkingchimp.com)


By Robert Parry
Created Mar 16 2009 - 10:02am

For Americans who hear the name Washington Post and still think of “All the President’s Men” – brave journalists and editors facing down a corrupt President – today’s version of the newspaper would be a sad disappointment, a betrayal of a noble past.

Over the last three decades, the Post has evolved into a neoconservative propaganda sheet, especially its opinion section which fronted for George W. Bush’s false Iraq-WMD claims, led the long-term bashing of Iraq War critics, and defends whatever actions the Israeli government takes, including the recent war in Gaza and apparently its desire to preemptively bomb Iran.

Rather than a newspaper committed to the truth and favoring a broad debate about important issues, the Washington Post has become an enforcement mechanism for a neocon-dominated Establishment, setting the parameters for permissible points of view and twisting facts for that purpose.

A recent example of this enforcement role was its March 12 lead editorial trashing former U.S. Ambassador Charles “Chas” Freeman for issuing a two-page statement pointing out that his nomination to serve as a top intelligence analyst had been torpedoed by Washington’s powerful Israel Lobby.

To the Post’s editors, however, there apparently is no Israel Lobby; there has been no large-scale organized effort to bend U.S. foreign policy to the interests of Israeli governments over the years. Even the suggestion that such a body exists is a sign of delusion, bigotry and a conspiratorial mindset.

[seemslikeadream]

1. YEP

[blm]

4. Wish Parry had called it like this 20yrs ago, before fascists gained majority control of newsmedia

.

[Octafish]

5. I thought he did and it cost him his job.

Going from memory: Parry had just produced "An Election Held Hostage" about the October Surprise for Public TV. He'd busted open the Iran-Contra cocaine smuggling stories for AP. Then, all heck broke loose for the guy. Weird how telling the truth is a career killer in corporate journalism. It must really be as they say at GE, "Integrity is for paupers."

[SpiralHawk]

6. Republicons - lies - drugs - guns - dirty money: that's Iran Contra

another occult anti-honor operation from the Republicon Homelanders...

[blm]

7. About the events, yes, he did. Calling out mediawhores WaPo and Newsweek and quoting Evan Thomas

and his fascist views is what was long overdue.

[leftchick]

8. yes it did, and he is a real hero

here is a great interview from 2006

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/10/26/veteran_investigative_journalist_bob_parry_on

:hi:

[Winterblues]

2. It will soon follow most other Newspapers in America

They are Dinosaurs and will be gone before this Administration is over.

[BuyingThyme]

3. Oh, Robert.... You're so damn close.

[unc70]

9. K. Graham's father was chairman of Fed Reserve, head of World Bank, more

The Post has always been about the Establishment, NY banking and investment interests, and very close with Israel from the beginning with strong support in every way, visible or not.

Go read about her father Eugene Meyer, appointed chair of the Fed Reserve by Hoover in 1930, first head of World Bank in 1946, started Allied Chemical, and lots more. He bought the Post at bankruptcy auction in 1933.

Her grandfather was a partner at Lazard Freres. Her mother was an Ernst. Katherine Graham attended Vassar and Chicago.

Her husband Phil Graham was editor of the Harvard Law Review, clerked for Justice Frankfurter, and served in military intelligence. (His brother Bob was senator from Florida and prominent wrt intelligence issues.) Phil Graham evenually commited suicide in 1963.

Given this background, I am suprised that Parry fails to even mention any of this history of the Post.

[BuyingThyme]

11. Thank you.

[Hannah Bell]

14. The timing of Graham's suicide was kind of interesting too, as I recall.

"Through the Post Company's Newsweek arm, Graham eventually met Australian journalist Robin Webb, and in 1962 they began an affair. In 1963, he and Webb flew to Arizona; he appeared at a newspaper publishing convention inebriated and/or manic. At the microphone he made a number of provocative comments, including the revelation that Kennedy was sleeping with Mary Pinchot Meyer. His assistant, James Truitt, called for his doctor, Leslie Farber, who flew in by private jet, as did (subsequently) Graham's wife. Graham was sedated, bound in a straitjacket, and flown back to Washington. He was committed for five days to Chestnut Lodge, a psychiatric hospital in Rockville, Maryland.

Graham then left his wife for Robin Webb, announced to his friends that he planned to divorce his wife and immediately remarry, and indicated that he wanted to purchase sole control of the Post Company. In June, in a fit of depression, he broke off his affair and returned home. On June 20, 1963, he entered Chestnut Lodge for the second time, and was formally diagnosed with manic depression (now called bipolar disorder). He was treated with psychotherapy.

On August 3, 1963, after Graham had made repeated requests of his doctors to be allowed a short stay away from the hospital, and "quite noticeably much better", according to his wife, he was permitted to go to their farmhouse in Virginia, Glen Welby, for the weekend. While his wife was in another part of the retreat, Graham committed suicide with a 28-gauge shotgun."

[Hannah Bell]

15. More: relation to Loebs, Newsweek ownership, Levi-Strauss (Stern/Haas),

Goldwater, Newmark...

http://homepage.mac.com/lindalevi/PersonalAW/KMGraham.htm.

[leftchick]

16. Katherine herself was a real piece of work

http://www.namebase.org/davis.html

"We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets, and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows." -- Katharine Graham at a 1988 speech at CIA headquarters.


And Parry has addressed this...

The CIA connections that Davis does mention are dynamite. The issue is relevant today because frequently the D.C. reader has to pick up the Washington Times to get information on the CIA the Post refuses to print. For example, while almost every major newspaper in the country, as well as CBS News and ABC News, use the real name of former CIA Costa Rican station chief "Tomas Castillo," the Post, as of late June, continues to gloat over their use of the pseudonym only. This is probably Bradlee's decision, not Katharine's, because Newsweek let former Associated Press reporter Robert Parry use Castillo's real name (Joseph F. Fernandez, age 50) when Parry joined the magazine earlier this year. According to Davis, Katharine doesn't make editorial decisions these days unless they threaten the health of the company.

[TWiley]

10. Rupert the-dipshit- neo-con Murdock

Why is it that the ruperts of this world wail about "liberal media" and yet, oppose the fairness doctrine? If the media was as liberal as they claim, then their cause would pick up lots of free publicity. Maybe they really do not believe their own bullshit when called on it.

[libodem]

12. It's good to call attention to that fact!

Hear, hear.:applause:

[libodem]

13. It's good to call attention to that fact!

Hear, hear.:applause: