Comments on: Yeow! Knoller Feels Readers' Wrath

[sanfelz]

Hats off to Knoller for his willingness to participate in a dialogue of sorts in this forum. But I think the whole point was not the questions asked at a press conference but the lack of follow-up independent investigations by the media of the claims made by the Bush administration.
Russert's responses were as simple minded as that chalkboard he brandishes.

[kevin-lyda]

Your White House reporter says at one point: "We%u2019re an irascible and unlikable bunch. I%u2019m one of us and I don%u2019t like us very much."

This is a symptom of a problem. We don't care if you're likable. Your job is to inform us. You're supposed to be journalists, not celebrities.

You get angry letters and take from that that you're "unlikable" - that's not the point. We don't respect you. That *is* the point.

What you should be aiming for is respect.

You have a job to do. If you do it well your professionalism will be respected. If you don't do it you'll lose our respect and you'll harm our country.

Jon Stewart wasn't just talking to Tucker Carlson that day. When will the people who call themselves journalists figure that out?

[Jonnan001]

I will also say, those you are hearing from here are also those that have six *years* of frustration.

For six *years* I have had people explain to me that I was a paranoid left-wing idiot, because I could come up with strong evidence that the administration was lying, but only if I looked at the foreign press (And evidently, had I been looking, Knight-Ridder. Kudos to the people that got it right.)

I'm not smart enough to prove it myself, but the foreign press gave references, showed the UN reports where it proved they were making it up as they went along. I knew there were no connections between 9/11 and Saddam early on, but it didn't cross the ocean to the United States until it was far too late.

Peace Marches were underreported, people being arrested and tortured were ignored, and the administration continued on to further and further abuses because the American 'Free' Press NEVER CALLED THEM ON IT.

So yeah, we're pissed.

We're the lucky ones. 600,000 Iraqis are dead.

Jonnan

[ncmphoto43]

Moyers is right. Yes, collectively, apart from Helen Thomas, the White House press corps - and most TV "talking head" journalists and pundits - have given the admin a free ride since the war began.
The Bush admin has stated what are outright lies over and over and I've yet to see any members of our mainstream press call them out on it, whether it's Cheney's dogged paranoia, which gets airtime and polite head nodding from the TV pundits even now, or for example Bush stating, as he's done at least twice, that the reason the US attacked Iraq was that *Saddam Hussein kicked out the UN weapons inspectors*.
I saw him state that the first time on a live CNN press conference with Kofi Annan after his return from an African tour. The video may still be on the official gov website. He stated it and Kofi was hard-put to keep his diplomatic straight face but did anyone in the press correct him or contest his statement? No, not then and not in the next day's papers, with a very polite exception in the Washington Post, buried on page whatsit, mentioning that the President might have misspoken. He said it again some months back and again, nobody contested it. If the press swallows outright lies that it knows are lies, how can we not believe that, for whatever reasons, they are in collusion with the administration?

[war_on_peas]

Where%u2019s your skepticism? How is it possible that a veteran reporter, backed by the resources of CBS News, managed to completely miss the biggest story of the new century: Bush's use of phony intelligence, fear-mongering and appeals to misplaced patriotism to gain consensus for the invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation that posed no threat whatsoever to the US and had no ties to Al Qaeda.

In sharp contrast, millions of non-journalists with web access, Google and a bit of time and curiosity pieced together the story rather easily. From the 1998 Project for a New American Century letter to Clinton on Iraq to Downing Street to reports of the UN weapons inspectors to debunking the aluminum tubes and %u201Cmobile WMD labs%u201D fairy tales to letting leases to pump (and take all the money from) Iraqi oil reserves -- all the way to the current saber rattling over Iran.

The PNAC letter (see: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm) advocating regime change is signed by, among others, Abrams, Armitage, Bolton, Kristol, Perle, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Woolsey. This was rather disturbing to many people on the web, but you apparently didn%u2019t bother to peek behind the curtain or maybe felt it safer to continue parroting administration lies.

Aren%u2019t you getting sick of being scooped constantly by non-US media and millions of amateurs on the web while you and your fellow beat writers remain committed to the official con?

[jdunne4]

I have heard many times, various memebers of the washington press comment "why cover old ground" concerning the lead up to the war or outing a CIA agent, the downing street memo... etc etc.. etc..... Its not old news to the public. Its only old news to you insiders. What the public heard and was forced feed by you were confusing and contrictory postions.. Isn't there something called objective facts? While not everyting is black and white.. Many are... YOu do not server the public good be just giving 2 sides of a story. THere is something called the thruth.

On a scale of 1 - 10 (10 is good) you guys get a 3 for even investigative, tenatious, fact checkers and giving the public the real informations they need to make informative decisions.

Do you job, do some research vs going to press dinners. Why even bother going to the press briefing? They are simply BS talking points chatter.... Your time would be better spend doing real journalism..

I will make you a offer, I can go to the press breifning. I will set down my recorder and hit record... then I can play it back to you... Basically like what the press is doing to us now.....

Joe Dunne

[blonderdog]

Who cares what questions you asked?

What matters is what you printed when you reported the answers.

When you got answers full of lies, you should have printed the facts involved.

It's disingenuous to ask the public to come up with better questions. As you have pointed out, the questions were OK. The reportage of the answers is what's broken.

If you interview the President and ask him about his military service, and he replies that "he did his duty," you print his quote followed by the INDISPUTABLE FACT THAT HE WAS AWOL FOR A YEAR.

[jdunne4]

What would I ask?

This train of thoughtto me shows your lack of undersanding or tolerance for why the public holds you, the washington press corp, in contempt...

This is not about "what question" to ask... Its not about gatcha journalism. No matter what "question" you ask. The "answer" is going to be suberfuge and frankly LIEs...

Your job is/should be to filter out the subterfuge and give the facts. If they lie, say it.....

You do not need to just rush out and reguratate the latest talking points every hour. Take your time do a littel research if you need it and then tell us what is true or false. If the president says "Clinton did it too", you should clearly comment on the exact validity of this statement. not just get a "oposing view"

When Cheney speaks half truths and or lies... You should point this fact out vs repeat Cheneys position and assume the public will understand the facts...

[peterbaldwin-2009]

Knoller's contempt for the people is palpable. He is a spineless sycophant who, like the other press corps sheep, have blood on their hands.

All this whinging by progressive bloggers is of scant value though. Knoller will never admit he is but a goose stepping Bush Nazi and all the progressive response does is bring him closer to his Fuhrer.

Those of us who oppose these lap dogs, must look to how the neocons deal with dissidents. McCain doesn't like what Jon Stewart has been doing so he tells Stewart to his face that he wants to put an EID under his desk. Someone needs to "joke" about putting an EID under Knoller's desk. Suddenly the laughter wll stop.

[vastleft]

Please note that the two halves of my posts are appearing in reverse order.