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From
The Media Guardian
http://media.guardian.co.uk
US TV networks 'kissed
ass', says Wolff
Ciar Byrne
June 25, 2003
Michael Wolff, the media
commentator and New York Magazine columnist, has accused American television networks
of "kissing ass" in their coverage of the Iraq war in return for a relaxation
of media ownership rules in the US.
Wolff put forward what
he described as the "semi-conspiracy theory" that major media companies in the
US meekly followed the flag-waving agenda of the Bush administration in order
to persuade the federal communications commission to change its regulations.
"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.
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.
Wolff also claimed the
system of embedding journalists with troops in Iraq was little more than a public
relations operation.
"I have difficulty in
understanding why somebody didn't say: 'You're not becoming a war reporter, you're
becoming a PR guy'," he said.
Journalists who thought
the Bush administration took a risk with the embed system were mistaken, Wolff
said.
"One of the thoughts was
- this could potentially be very devastating to the Bush administration. What
if we saw carnage? What if the coalition forces really were bloody?
"A lot of media people
went round talking about that without any realisation that this was the most one-sided
war that will ever have been fought in history.
"From the beginning the
embedding was safe. They couldn't lose.
"I think the whole principal
is intrinsically dangerous. I don't think we should be attached to military forces.
There's no way you wouldn't become an adjunct to those forces. "I don't know how
we launched into this without any form of scepticism."
He added journalists who
were promised access to the "head of General Tommy Franks" at Central Command
in Dohar were forced to become "Jayson Blairs" because of the pressure on them
to provide news when they were being starved of information by the US military.
New York Times journalist
Blair was fired for fabricating and plagiarising large parts of his stories.
Wolff ran into trouble
with the Bush administration when, at a Dohar press briefing, he dared to ask
the question: "What are we doing here? What is the value proposition? What do
we get out of this?"
ENDS
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