Moreover, there can be no better example of the double standards that prevail in U.S. politics and in its relationship with the Fourth Estate than Obama's 2013 honouring of Ben Bradlee -- the iconic Washington Post editor who famously presided over the paper's coverage of the Watergate Scandal, the outcome of which was the downfall and subsequent resignation of an American president -- with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In his speech to accompany the award, Obama -- the president who has done more to curtail and then criminalise the activities of investigative journalists, leakers and whistleblowers in ways that even Richard Nixon might never have even contemplated -- without any hint of irony, extolled Bradlee's determination to ensure Americans are not denied the truth about what their increasingly secretive and subversive government gets up to without proper 'adult supervision', and that the national and public interest is therefore preserved for posterity.
Obama's own home-grown hypocrisy in these matters is itself something to behold. We should recall this was a president whose government he promised would be truly accountable and more transparent than previous ones. In an article in OpEdNews recently, contributor Sherwood Ross takes the president to task for his stance against investigative reporters in particular. Amongst other examples, Ross cites the case of James Risen, whose book State of War looks like it could land Risen in jail in the foreseeable future.
Briefly the case -- which has become something of a cause celebre in the mainstream and alternative media circles -- involves the Justice Department under first the Bush administration and now under Obama seeking to force Risen to reveal his sources for the book, which the journalist thus far has refused to do so. To an investigative journalist revealing the identity of sources that provide information on condition of anonymity is akin to a priest revealing someone's confession in a sermon from the pulpit at Sunday Mass; to refuse to do so is an article of faith of the profession.
And when such cynical "nonfeasance, misfeasance and malfeasance" in news reporting is combined with the estimable resources of the Merchants of Doubt and the Manufacturers of Consent that populate the highly sophisticated multi-billion dollar lobbying, perception management and public relations industries in America (themselves vying variously with politics itself as the world's second oldest profession), [and] almost all of whom are employed on the dime of the Powers that Be (industry bodies, political parties, think tanks, Super PACs, sundry foundations, corporations and institutions etc.), unless they actually go out of their way to do so, the ordinary news, information and opinion consumer doesn't hazard a chance in Hades of ever getting anything resembling credible, untainted insight into the zeitgeist, so as to be able to maintain whatever might remain of their "alert and knowledgeable" status.
To reiterate, that the MSM still commands attention from folks -- much less retains any credibility, integrity or respect -- in this day and age of plentiful, accessible, quality news sources and especially so given their less than exemplary track record, is a mystery inside a conundrum.
One might accurately depict the establishment media and their cohort as one collective Weapon of Mass Disinformation without risk of engaging in hyperbole.
Greg Maybury
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