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Title: MADSEN: GUCKERT/GANNON NEW MEMBER NAT'L PRESS CLUB
Source:
Wayne Madsen Report
URL Source: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
Published: Jul 18, 2006
Author: Wayne Madsen
Post Date: 2006-07-21 15:12:03 by aristeides
Keywords: None
Views: 355
Comments: 10
July 18, 2006 -- While Israeli bombs and missiles obliterate Lebanon and her people, the Washington Post's Dana Millbank, a favorite messenger boy for the Bush neocons, launched his own attack against Lebanese-American White House Press Corps Doyenne Helen Thomas, in a scathing review of her new book, Watchdogs of Democracy: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Failed the Public. Thomas has been one of the few White House correspondents to try to hold George W. Bush and his three lap dog Press Secretaries accountable for their actions. Millbank does not hide the fact that he detests Thomas and her politics in calling for a more even-handed U.S. approach to the Middle East. Millbank is a noted apologist for Israel and a key member of what has become known as "The Lobby" in Washington. Millbank harangued former CIA officer Ray McGovern, alleging he was anti-Semitic because he stated that the U.S. attack on Iraq was partially carried out for the interests of Israel. But that is Millbank's job and what his Washington Post masters expect him to do. In her book, Helen Thomas calls the press to task for their relative silence at Bush press conferences when it was made clear that he was intent on leading the United States to war in Iraq. Millbank calls this "a rather unpleasant rehashing of the liberal criticism of the press's performance before the Iraq war." Millbank continues, "Thomas departs from personal anecdote and merely recites some of the millions of words that have been devoted to the cause in previous books, articles and blogs. It is an effort unworthy of a woman who, whatever her late husband was, truly is a journalistic icon." Here Millbank goes for the jugular. He infers that some of Thomas's material is not original and he brings in Thomas's late husband, Douglas Cornell of the Associated Press. Perhaps Millbank would want to write about Ann Coulter's lack of originality, also known as plagiarism, before he attacks a real journalist. Millbank's newspaper, the Post, is nothing more than a laughing stock among Washington's independent journalist corps. It is viewed as nothing more than a contrivance of and conveyance for the Bush White House, corporate public relations firms, the Israel Lobby, and advocacy for fly-by-night diploma mill universities (the Post's Kaplan business unit runs 75 diploma mill campuses around the country). Except for some great investigative reporters like Dana Priest (who exposed the CIA's secret prison camps in Eastern Europe), the Post is scoffed at by Washington's independent media -- seen as a rest home for dried up pontificators like Bob Woodward (Leonard Nimoy's "In Search Of" series missed a golden opportunity to film a segment in Washington, DC -- they could have produced a show called "In Search of a Bob Woodward footnote or source."). Thomas also writes, "White House reporters became a laughingstock before the viewing public, who wondered about all the 'softballs' being pitched to the president at such a momentous time." Millbank, one of the chief softball tossers, takes umbrage at Thomas's characterization of most of the press corps. He charges that "the sort of questioning Thomas practices, amounting to argument more than query, is not the sort of questioning any generation of journalists practiced -- not even in the salad days of United Press International, before it collapsed and Thomas became a Hearst columnist." Here, Millbank needs a little history lesson. The White House Press Corps of past were very well known for their tough questioners: Millbank seems to forget Dan Schorr's constant pressing of Lyndon Johnson, Dan Rather holding Richard Nixon's feet to the fire, and Sam Donaldson not allowing Ronald Reagan to squirm from a question. Of course, these were real journalists, acting on behalf of the public, and not the stenographers and corporate, right-wing propagandists who now populate the White House Press Corps. Millbank also claims that Bush Press Secretaries Ari Fleischer and Tony Snow merely patronize Thomas by calling her "Helen." Far from patronization, Washington's actual journalists call Ms. Thomas "Helen" as a show of respect, something the Bush apologists and neocons in the DC Press Corps have neither earned nor deserve. PS: Following on the above theme of a Washington Press Corps that is as sycophantic as it is stenographic, the National Press Club last night awarded "Best Broadcast" to Howard Kurtz of CNN's Reliable Sources. Kurtz and Millbank are in a dead heat in the race to lick George W. Bush's shoes. It's also important to note that the National Press Club has a new member -- welcome Jeff Gannon.
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#1. To: All (#0)
Since Madsen asks for mail to be sent to him c/o The Front Desk National Press Club 529 14th St., NW Washington, DC 20045, he is presumably in a position to know about new members of the National Press Club.
Blogger? Journalist? Now that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can set up shop on the Web, the days when you could tell who was a reporter by looking for a press card stuck in a fedora are long gone. Both journalists and bloggers will debate whether there's a difference between them, on Fri., Apr. 8, at 9:30 a.m. The panel includes Jeff Gannon, whose question at a presidential press conference focused attention on the issue; Ana Marie Cox, editor of http://Wonkette.com, and Congress Daily's John Stanton. Reserve at 662-7501. http://www.press.org/abouttheclub/record/2005/record-03-24-05.shtml#STORY2
The National Press Club is only three or four blocks from the White House. Any buddies Guckert/Gannon still has at the White House may be glad to have him located so close to their offices.
hey, Milltoast...she's absolutely right.
As for WWIII, let's try something new. All I'm saying is give isolationism a chance.~~Pissed Off Janitor
White House Press Corps Catfight! While "Catfight" is a term used to describe a bit of nasty clawing between two women, I thought it was applicable to the review of of Hearst columnist Helen Thomas' book by the nominally-masculine Washington Post reporter, Dana Milbank. Thomas wrote that White House reporters were collectively softballing the Bush administration after 9/11 and failed to ask the tough quesetions that might have prevented the war in Iraq. This presupposes that the intelligence was manipulated to support the case for Saddan Hussein's ouster, but that's another discussion. Milbank, one of the reporters Thomas criticized, objects to the characterization, since "softball tosser" seems to be the most insulting thing a White House reporter can be called. Milbank whines that he and his colleagues asked suitably biased questions. Thomas complained that the White House Press Corps "gets to chummy" with those in power, a charge to which Milbank responds, "I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!" To support their own offended scribe, the Washington Post ran the review with the following photo from 1997. It appears that Thomas is either demonstrating her aggressive reporting technique or applying for that intern job... ...I don't expect "Gannon" to be honest, but anyway you look at, it's all about protecting Shittistan.
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
dog
As for WWIII, let's try something new. All I'm saying is give isolationism a chance.~~Pissed Off Janitor
Is it too late for me to caste a vote for shitministan?
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
Time's ticking Daks, take a laxative...
I'm just a zealous guy! :)
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
#2. To: aristeides (#1)
From the "Owl Club" website...
“Yes, but is this good for Jews?"
#3. To: Eoghan (#2)
#4. To: aristeides (#0)
Thomas also writes, "White House reporters became a laughingstock before the viewing public, who wondered about all the 'softballs' being pitched to the president at such a momentous time."
#5. To: christine (#4)
From Gannon's blog...
“Yes, but is this good for Jews?"
#6. To: Eoghan (#5)
And when I touch you I feel happy inside
It's such a feelin' that my love I can't hide
I can't hide
I can't hide
#7. To: Eoghan (#5)
It appears that Thomas is either demonstrating her aggressive reporting technique or applying for that intern job...
#8. To: christine (#7)
#9. To: Dakmar (#8)
“Yes, but is this good for Jews?"
#10. To: Eoghan (#9)
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