{"id":3048,"date":"2012-07-22T18:29:28","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T01:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/07\/22\/ministry-of-truth\/"},"modified":"2012-07-22T18:42:52","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T01:42:52","slug":"ministry-of-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2012\/07\/ministry-of-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministry of Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wnd.com\/files\/2011\/12\/Joseph-Farah_avatar.jpg\" alt=\"author-image\" \/>                     <em class=\"red\">by<\/em>                     <span class=\"fn\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wnd.com\/author\/jfarah\/\">Joseph Farah<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There was a rather low-key confession made in the New York Times last  week that deserves to be blared throughout this country so that every  American understands what they are reading in the establishment\u2019s  ultra-controlled, government-managed \u201cpress\u201d \u2013 and I use that last word  loosely indeed.<\/p>\n<p>The admission came in the form of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/i-take-it-back-nytimes.pdf\" title=\"a story by Jeremy Peters on the politics page of the Times July 16\">a story by Jeremy Peters on the politics page of the Times July 16<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been waiting for others to point it out, discuss it, debate it,  express shock and exasperation over it. But I\u2019ve waited for naught.<\/p>\n<p>What this shocking story reveals is that even I \u2013 one of the kingpins  of the new media and a refugee from the state-controlled spin machine \u2013  underestimated the utter and total corruption of the euphemistically  called \u201cmainstream press.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It shows that <em>most <\/em>\u2013 not some \u2013 members of the print media  establishment with access to the White House submit their copy to  government officials for review, \u201ccorrection\u201d and approval before it  reaches the American people!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/wnd-the-appalling-state-of-journalism.pdf\" title=\"Even \u201cprogressive\u201d WND columnist Ellen Ratner agrees \u2013 media under a spell!\">Even \u201cprogressive\u201d WND columnist Ellen Ratner agrees \u2013 media under a spell!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are some key excerpts from the piece, if you think I\u2019m exaggerating:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThey are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to  reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major  condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be  quoted and attributed by name.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cMost reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the president\u2019s top  strategists, grudgingly agree. After the interviews, they review their  notes, check their tape recorders and send in the juiciest sound bites  for review. The verdict from the campaign \u2013 an operation that prides  itself on staying consistently on script \u2013 is often no, Barack Obama  does not approve this message.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cNow, with a millisecond Twitter news cycle and an unforgiving,  gaffe-obsessed media culture, politicians and their advisers are  routinely demanding that reporters allow them final editing power over  any published quotations.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cQuote approval is standard practice for the Obama campaign, used by  many top strategists and almost all mid-level aides in Chicago and at  the White House \u2013 almost anyone other than spokesmen who are paid to be  quoted. (And sometimes it applies even to them.) It is also commonplace  throughout Washington and on the campaign trail.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cMany journalists spoke about the editing only if granted anonymity, an irony that did not escape them.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cFrom Capitol Hill to the Treasury Department, interviews granted  only with quote approval have become the default position. Those  officials who dare to speak out of school, but fearful of making the  slightest off-message remark, shroud even the most innocuous and anodyne  quotations in anonymity by insisting they be referred to as a \u2018top  Democrat\u2019 or a \u2018Republican strategist.\u2019\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThose [reporters] who did speak on the record said the restrictions  seem only to be growing. \u2018It\u2019s not something I\u2019m particularly proud of  because there\u2019s a part of me that says, Don\u2019t do it, don\u2019t agree to  their terms,\u2019 said Major Garrett, a correspondent for The National  Journal.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cIt was difficult to find a news outlet that had not agreed to quote  approval, albeit reluctantly. Organizations like Bloomberg, The  Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Reuters and The New York Times have all  consented to interviews under such terms.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I could go on and on. I urge you to read the entire story. This may  be the most important story broken by the New York Times in years.<\/p>\n<p>What it means is this: When Americans read these reports \u2013 whether in  newspapers, wire services or on the Internet \u2013 they are not really  reading news stories at all. They are reading approved, pre-packaged  press releases from the government and politicians. But, even worse,  they are not labeled as such. They are labeled as actual news.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how low the national press establishment has descended. And,  when you read the story in its full context, you will understand that  the concerns expressed about this practice by those submitting  themselves to it are not ethical concerns. They are not concerns for the  truth. They are concerns about their own convenience and for the loss  of \u201ccolor\u201d in their stories.<\/p>\n<p>Let me state what I hope is obvious to all reading this column: This  sort of willing capitulation to government censorship was not the norm  five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago or 30 years ago. This is a  new phenomenon \u2013 chilling and alarming to an old-timer like me who would  never agree to submit his copy for approval to politicians.<\/p>\n<p>These so-called journalists are selling their ethical and moral souls  for access to politicians. And this practice raises expectations by  politicians that they can routinely manipulate the press to their  advantage. That makes the job of real journalists \u2013 independent  reporters faithful to their craft \u2013 even more difficult, because they  will be shut out from access.<\/p>\n<p>It reminds me of the fact that, just last week, WND was denied  credentials to cover the Democratic National Convention. Why do you  suppose what has become one of the largest and most influential news  agencies in the country would be denied access to the convention floor?  Simply because the Democrats know we won\u2019t play by their rules of  control like the members of the establishment press club.<\/p>\n<p>All I can say about these people I once considered \u201ccolleagues\u201d is  that I am so ashamed of them. I am mortified. They are humiliating  themselves and a vital institution for any free society.<\/p>\n<p>It seems the biggest threat to the American tradition of a free and  independent press is not government coercion. It\u2019s the willing  submission of the press to being handled and managed by government and  politicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Joseph Farah There was a rather low-key confession made in the New York Times last week that deserves to be blared throughout this country so that every American understands what they are reading in the establishment\u2019s ultra-controlled, government-managed \u201cpress\u201d \u2013 and I use that last word loosely indeed. The admission came in the form [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-propaganda","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}