About her time at ABC News in 2002/3:
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the press corps dropped the ball at the beginning. When the lead-up to the war began, the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war that was presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings.
And my own experience at the White House was that, the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives -- and I was not at this network at the time -- but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president. . . .
COOPER: You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?
YELLIN: Not in that exact -- they wouldn't say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces. They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical and try to put on pieces that were more positive, yes. That was my experience.At least Yellin is self-aware enough to understand this. I think many big-time reporters think they are free to write about what they want, but are oblivious of why they rose to the positions they hold in the first place: they were recognized by mangement as docile corporate careerists. They were never the intrepid reporters they thought themselves to be in their own imaginations. They were people who did what it took to get ahead, and getting ahead means giving management what it wants. Greenwald makes the same point:
(h/t Greenwald Greenwald talks about similar admissions from Kaite Couric and the Phil Donahue and Ashleigh Banfield stories)
Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and company are paid to play the role of TV reporters but, in reality, are mere television emcees -- far more akin to circus ringleaders than journalists. It's just as simple as that. David Halberstam pointed that out some time ago. Unlike Yellin, Donahue and Banfield, nobody needed to pressure the likes of Williams, Gibson and Russert to serve as propaganda handmaidens for the White House. It's what they do quite eagerly on their own, which is precisely why they're in the corporate positions they're in. They are smooth, undisruptive personalities who don't create problems for their executives. Watching them finally describe how they perceive of "their role" leaves no doubt about any of that. . .
Clearly, if these network media stars think they did nothing wrong in the run-up to the war and in their coverage of the Bush administration -- and they don't -- then it's only logical to conclude that they still do the same things and will do the same things in the future. As people like Jessica Yellin, Katie Couric, Phil Donahue and Scott McClellan are making clear, these media outlets are controlled propaganda arms of the Government, of the political establishment generally. For many people, that isn't a new revelation, but the fact that it's becoming clearer by the day -- from unimpeachable sources on the inside -- is nonetheless quite significant.Corporate control of the media conversation of public affairs is a very serious problem, and the solution is not a Balkanized internet. The net provides a counterbalance for those who are serious about finding out what is really going on, and many people, me included, find it very difficult to take seriously anything that the print or electronic MSM takes seriously. But insofar as our democracy and the health of the republic depdends on the attitudes and voting choices of low-information voters, the MSM matters, and they must be held accountable and shamed into more probing and effective coverage of those issues our power elite would prefer we not know about.