25.6.03
Wolff: TV networks "kissed ass"
In return for the quid pro quo of relaxed media ownership rules, according to New Yok magazine columnist Michael Wolff. Wolff accused US journalism in general of a willful ignorance about this fact:
Meanwhile, this column in the Guardian is worth taking a glance at. Nothing earth-shaking - another liberal who has become increasingly disillusioned with "the system" following the thorough trampling administered to democracy by Blair and Bush - but it is well-written and has some good one-liners:
In return for the quid pro quo of relaxed media ownership rules, according to New Yok magazine columnist Michael Wolff. Wolff accused US journalism in general of a willful ignorance about this fact:
"Ass kissing has gone on to a profound degree. It's pervasive throughout all these news organisations. They need the FCC to behave in certain ways. In order to do this we have got to go along to get along," said Wolff, who delivered the keynote speech at today's MediaGuardian forum on war coverage.Whoa, hold on there, Wolff - better leave connecting the dots to people like Bush and his apologist Pat Roberts.
He added the FCC's decision to relax media ownership rules came shortly after the end of the war.
"Any reporter in America who would see that quid pro quo in any other business says: 'No, that doesn't happen in the news business'," Wolff added.
Meanwhile, this column in the Guardian is worth taking a glance at. Nothing earth-shaking - another liberal who has become increasingly disillusioned with "the system" following the thorough trampling administered to democracy by Blair and Bush - but it is well-written and has some good one-liners:
If, as Stanley Kubrick claimed, large states often behave like gangsters while small states often behave like prostitutes, then we [the British] may at least console ourselves that we have descended to a point where we are more whore than racketeer.Haha..."bullshit".
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Lacking the gun, we are to be only the mouth. The deal is this: America provides the firepower; we provide the bullshit.
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...you can feel, as our rulers reach for the barbecue forks and the Chardonnay, as they gather forgivingly again for their frotteurs' trade union meetings in Evian - "How lovely to see you, Mr Bush"; "No, how lovely to see you" - a growing confidence that although something utterly dishonourable happened in public life earlier this year, there is no reason that, like all dishonourable things, it should not soon be forgotten.
