"I can't imagine a bigger chill on free speech and the public's right to know ...

Attorney Gen.: Reporters Can Be Prosecuted - Yahoo! News: "Sun May 21, 3:31 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.

The nation's top law enforcer also said the government will not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.
...
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said she presumed that Gonzales was referring to the 1917 Espionage Act, which she said has never been interpreted to prosecute journalists who were providing information to the public.

"I can't imagine a bigger chill on free speech and the public's right to know what it's government is up to — both hallmarks of a democracy — than prosecuting reporters," Dalglish said. ...

O'Reilly: Young Americans "have no idea what's going on" because they "get their news from Jon Stewart" ... [study] found Daily Show viewers informed

Media Matters - O'Reilly: Young Americans "have no idea what's going on" because they "get their news from Jon Stewart": "O'Reilly: Young Americans 'have no idea what's going on' because they 'get their news from Jon Stewart'

Summary: Bill O'Reilly asserted that '[m]any Americans ages 18 to 24 have no idea what's going on,' stating that they 'get their news from [Comedy Central host] Jon Stewart and their point of view from bomb-throwing entertainers.' In fact, studies have shown that viewers of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with John Stewart are consistently better informed about current events than consumers of other media, and Daily Show viewers are significantly better educated than viewers of The O'Reilly Factor. Further, consumers of Fox News in general have been found to be significantly more misinformed about current events than consumers of other mainstream media."

During the May 23 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly asserted that "[m]any Americans ages 18 to 24 have no idea what's going on," stating that they "get their news from [Comedy Central host] Jon Stewart and their point of view from bomb-throwing entertainers." In fact, studies have shown that viewers of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with John Stewart are consistently better informed about current events than consumers of other media, and Daily Show viewers are considerably better educated than viewers of The O'Reilly Factor. Further, consumers of Fox News in general have been found to be significantly more misinformed about current events than consumers of other mainstream media.

In 2004, the nonpartisan Annenberg Public Policy Center released its National Annenberg Election Survey, which found Daily Show viewers to be better informed on campaign issues than consumers of other late-night television programs, newspapers, network news, or cable news. In a press release, Annenberg senior analyst Dannagal Goldthwaite Young said: "Daily Show viewers have higher campaign knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers -- even when education, party identification, following politics, watching cable news, receiving campaign information online, age, and gender are taken into consideration." ...

Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'

Independent Online Edition > Americas: "Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV' | By Andrew Buncombe in Washington | Published: 29 May 2006

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

"We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them," said Diana Farsetta, one of the group's researchers. "I would say it's pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air." ...

News Hounds: "Special Report" Edits Rumsfeld Video

News Hounds: "Special Report" Edits Rumsfeld Video: "Reported by Janie - May 05, 2006

In a segment that sent chills down my spine, 'Special Report with Brit Hume' attempted to rewrite history last night (5/4) by editing the video of Rumsfeld's discussion with former CIA agent Roy McGovern during a speech in Atlanta.

Hume opened the segment with, 'Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, meanwhile was trying to take it guff during a speech today in Atlanta where he shrugged off a couple of hecklers, and then took on an audience member who said he had worked at the CIA for 27 years, and accused the Bush Admin.. Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration of lying about whether or not Iraq had WMDs.'

Hume then cut to the heavily edited video of the event.

Ray McGovern: ' Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties. Why?'

Donald Rumsfeld: 'Well, first of all, I haven't lied. I did not lie then. Colin Powell didn't lie. He spent weeks and weeks with the CIA people and prepared a presentation that I know he believed was accurate, and he presented that to the UN. The President spent weeks and weeks with the CIA, and he went to the American people and made a presentation. I am not in the intelligence business. They gave the world their honest opinion, it appears there were not WMDs there.'

RM: 'You said you knew where they were.'

DR: 'I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were.'

Comment: This was the first portion of the video that was edited. This is the portion that was removed:

RM: :You said you knew where they were Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there. Those are your words.'

DR: 'My words.... my words were that .... no, no, no wait a minute, wait a minute. Let him stay one second. Just a second.'

RM: 'This is America, Huh.'

DR: 'You’re getting plenty of play, sir.'

RM: 'I’d just like an honest answer.'

DR: 'I’m giving it to you.'

The disgusting propaganda continued ...

New York Times omits Colbert at correspondents' dinner ... President and First Lady unamused

The Raw Story | New York Times omits Colbert at correspondents' dinner: RAW STORY | Published: Monday May 1, 2006

The New York Times' article Monday on the White House correspondent's dinner failed to include any mention of Stephen Colbert, the deadpan host of Comedy Central's Colbert report, RAW STORY has found.

In fact, the paper didn't mention the comic's appearance at the dinner at all. The discovery was first made by a diarist at Daily Kos.

According to Editor & Publisher, the comic's jokes left the President and First Lady unamused. The press, reports said, reacted uncomfortably to the stinging humorous attacks on the press and the Administration.

'Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk-show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, 'and reality has a well-known liberal bias,'' wrote Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp, who was at the dinner." ...