I began following the Washington Post decades ago, when journalists often held the feet of powerful people to the fire. Today, that is unlikely since many media owners rank among the world’s wealthiest people. In general, they oppose changes to the status quo that do not provide personal benefits. That may partly explain why newspapers have about one-third the number of serious readers per capita than they had in the days of my parents.
In 1971, Washington Post was enjoying remarkable times under the leadership of Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee. Days after the New York Times, the Post published excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. The documents leaked by military analyst Dr. Daniel Ellsberg (1931-2023) revealed years of secret history proving American lies and deceit in Vietnam, where imperialist wars resulted in millions of casualties, mostly civilian.
Washington Post was effective in its original reporting of illegal activities by the Nixon administration. Following release of the Pentagon Papers, the “I am not a crook” President was concerned that further leaks would disclose more secrets, including his own private citizen’s effort to extend American participation in the Vietnam war.
Ellsberg and others (including Nixon biographer John Farrell) have also contended that Nixon was worried by what Ellsberg would reveal about Nixon’s backdoor negotiations with the Saigon government before he was president. While still a private citizen and a candidate for president in 1968, Nixon had signaled the South Vietnamese not to agree to peace terms proposed by President Johnson — promising them better terms if Nixon became president.
NPR
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote a scathing obituary of Nixon in 1994. It included:
If the right people had been in charge of Nixon’s funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin.
…He was utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency. Nobody trusted him — except maybe the Stalinist Chinese, and honest historians will remember him mainly as a rat who kept scrambling to get back on the ship.
He Was a Crook
After publication of the Pentagon Papers, Nixon tried to prevent further articles based on the documents. This was the first ever attempt by the federal government to exercise “prior restraint” on a newspaper. Within weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Nixon’s government. Justice Hugo Black wrote, “The press [is] to serve the governed, not the governors.”
After the Pentagon Papers, Nixon’s administration created a surreptitious group that became known as “The White House Plumbers.” The first prosecution of Ellsberg and associate Anthony Russo ended in a mistrial after government admitted to wiretapping a conversation between a defendant and his legal advisor. The judge presiding over Ellsberg’s second prosecution dismissed the case after court was told Nixon’s Plumbers burglarized a doctor’s office seeking psychiatric records related to Ellsberg.
Nixon’s Plumbers were best known for the Watergate burglary. Police arrested five men connected to the White House trying to bug offices of the Democratic National Committee in Washington. As often happens, the coverup became more important than the original crime. Diligent reporting by the Washington Post helped force Nixon to resign in 1974.
Former Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote that revelations like those that removed a President from office cannot happen today. She blames billionaire Rupert Murdoch:
Our media environment is far more fractured, and news organizations are far less trusted. And, in part, we can blame the rise of a right-wing media system. At its heart is Fox News, which was founded in 1996, nearly a quarter-century after the break-in, with a purported mission to provide a “fair and balanced” counterpoint to the mainstream media. Of course, that message often manifested in relentless and damaging criticism of its news rivals.
Meanwhile, Fox News and company have served as a highly effective laundry service for Trump’s lies. With that network’s help, his tens of thousands of false or misleading claims have found fertile ground among his fervent supporters — oblivious to the skillful reporting elsewhere that has called out and debunked those lies.
Dan Froomkin of Press Watch is critical of Fox News, but he also condemns today’s version of the Jeff Bezos owned Washington Post.
…the Post’s opinion offerings have gone from bad to tragically worse, with a seemingly ever-growing bevy of derivative right-wing columnists and moronic gag cartoons.
Here’s how I look at it: Trump-as-president sold papers (and drove digital subs). But there’s never been a bigger story in American political news than what’s happening right now within the increasingly demented and authoritarian Republican Party, and the threat it poses to our democratic system.
And the Post is blowing that story, badly.
Why? Because media is largely owned by members of an elite that Anand Giridharadas calls MarketWorld. The author of Winners Take All describes these aristocrats as a self-serving nexus of business and political figures who traffic in platitudes and profit from the status quo, which is something they believe should be left largely undisturbed.
Today’s Washington Post is controlled by members of MarketWorld.
Billionaire owner Jeff Bezos appointed Fred Ryan to head the newspaper. Ryan had been the longtime chair of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation board. He left in 2023 for a new position at the Reagan Foundation.
Ryan’s replacement was Patty Stonesifer, founding CEO of the charity created by billionaire Bill Gates. At the time, Stonesifer was a director of Amazon and a director of the foundation founded by billionaire John D. Rockefeller, who according to Harvard Business School “was (and still is) the richest individual in American business and economic history.“
The Guardian quoted Claire Enders, founder of a research firm covering communication industries. She said the super-rich buy newspapers to help push their agendas:
It is now possible to count on one hand the big media brands that aren’t owned by an oligarch or other billionaire. It’s another sign that the super-wealthy wish to control assets that give them an extra level of power. Whatever they may say, that’s the reason why they buy them.
The Washington Post, like other major journals, is an example of how Justice Hugo Black’s comment has been turned upside down. Today’s media is more likely to serve the governors than the governed.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Leonard Cohen
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
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Categories: Journalism
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I have seen the media, especially the mainstream media morph from a classic free press to a dismal Canadian style Pravda, spewing out news that they are paid to spew.
Joseph Goebbels would be pleased.
Related to the Cromie family, who one owned and published the Vancouver Sun, in my youth I met with the likes of Wassermann, Webster, Holt, Fotheringham and many others, sadly most are just but a faint history.
They were real newsies and gleaned every bit of gossip from cocktail parties and other invites, researched and published.
Not today, where reporters seldom do research and are almost provided with a pre written script of what to say and who not to involve.
I can say a lot more but only a remnant of the mainstream media remains in Canada and those who are doing the heavy lifting such as Norm, Bob Mackin, Terry Glavin and many more, keep the proverbial flame alive.
And now the CBC, media for the Canadian elites and the last time I listened to CBC radio I was absolutely disgusted, sorry but, the CBC is a toy for the progressives, who wish to pretend they are better than the great unwashed.
The truth, in Canada, is a fading dream as the mainstream media feed us fake news and alternative facts to the point where people stop listening and reading.
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Single events often are highly charged emotional events and sometimes a zoom out can provide a better balance perspective. I am not in any way on either side of the fence with regards to what is going on there but [a YouTube video provided] a timeline as to how historical events may have been the catalyst to the current situation. A similar measured response will most certainly not move the goal posts to a solution. It sure has moved the spotlight off Ukraine momentarily however.
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I looked at the linked video but it is a partisan justification of Israeli action that does not serve justice or negate the need for an immediate ceasefire and provision of humanitarian aid as called for by the United Nations.
A statement by the UN says:
A UN expert today demanded that Israel immediately rescind its order for 1.1 million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza within 24 hours, condemning the evacuation order as a crime against humanity and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.
“Forcible population transfers constitute a crime against humanity, and collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” said Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.
“We are horrified at the prospect of an additional 1 million Palestinians joining the over 423,000 people already forcibly driven from their homes by the violence over the past week,” she said.
“It is inconceivable that more than half of Gaza’s population could traverse an active war zone, without devastating humanitarian consequences, particularly while deprived of essential supplies and basic services,” said Gaviria Betancur.
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Norm .. I think your reply is being presented out of context. For consideration. If Israel had not issued the “get out of Dodge” to the Arabs currently in the
Northern part of Gaza would his comments still be partisan in a democracy..?
He seems to have done a tad of research but perhaps you view his finding partisan. That is how Canada is governed..No? A moot point perhaps but his video was posted a day before Israel made their evacuation announcement which also may suggest the video was made perhaps long before Israel issued their evacuation notice.
In addition in case you missed it he states he is totally against the current democratic elected Israeli government. You referenced
a “UN expert” as in a person representing the UN? So I am
asking you what would your reply be to the link before Israel issued it’s
warning? Yes Israel has
continually violated international law but with no consequences. Why
is that.?
Yes the Arabs in Gaza have a terrible military leadership problem under
Hamas.
Here is another link by the same gentleman detailing how the ownership
of who owns or occupies what land on a historical timeline basis.
If he is wrong in comments made in either link he welcomes the discussion upon the presenting factual supported.
evidence. He is not looking for a fight but a reasonable respectful exchange of factual evidence to support a position. Seems reasonable.
Worth a look perhaps. If not no problem. I have no skin in the game
and am waiting for Norman F..Gaza book to hit my mailbox.
Sure taken the global gaze off Ukraine for a bit.
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What are your thoughts on Canadian media, specifically the CBC?
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I have mixed feelings about CBC News. They are capable of good work but also put out material that is beyond questionable. It is plain bad.
Looking at the CBC News website today October 14, I saw an article by defence reporter Murray Brewster. It opened with:
The article is entirely one-sided, with no concern for the millions told to leave their homes while thousands were being killed by Israeli bombs and military action. Israel cut off water supplies and blacked-out electricity in Gaza. Civilians, including children are attacked and denied medical care. No mention that Netanyahu previously embraced Hamas. That news comes from The Times of Israel which headlined, “For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas.
The Intercept reported October 13 that Israelis are using conflict in Gaza to seize more West Bank land.
CBC seems to be in lock-step with other major news outlets in mostly ignoring pain and suffering inflicted on Palestinians for decades and acting as cheerleaders for the state of Israel, regardless of the war crimes committed. They aren’t even bothered to do the usual “bothsidesism.”
In local news, CBC has failed badly in reporting on BC politics. They ignore BC’s continued expansion of subsidized fossil fuel production and the massive exports of coal, including American thermal coal. They refuse to report on lies told by BC Hydro to justify expansion.
The Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail is controlled by the Thomsons, Canada’s wealthiest family. Toronto Star is owned by a member of the Bitove family, one of Canada’s richest.
The American hedge-fund owned Postmedia, Canada’s largest newspaper chain, continues to promote right-wing causes. Glacier Media is controlled by a real estate company, something that colours their reporting.
As Ms. Enders said in the linked article:
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I’ve heard some items on CBC Radio that look at the plight of the people of Gaza, so it’s not being ignored. Quite a tough interview on As It Happens last night with a Lt.-Col. in the IDF.
Agreed about BC environmental issues, though!
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Although I criticize CBC for the bad things, it is probably the best legacy media source for news in British Columbia. Mind you, that’s a bar that is not very high.
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