MEDIA CULTURE, VIDEOS
Fox VP on "Civil War": We're Not Falling Into That Trap [Stephen Spruiell]
Fox News covered the debate over NBC's grand "civil war" pronouncement in a segment on Special Report tonight that included a statement from Fox News VP John Moody:
MOODY STATEMENT: Some are using the term [civil war] to indicate failure, not inside Iraq, but of U.S. policy in Iraq. We're unwilling to fall into that tender trap. We're not using the term because there are non-Iraqis in the fray, and that makes it something different.
I think the last statement misses the real reason why NBC News has made the wrong call here. The presence of foreign jihadis is just one of many reasons why people can disagree over whether Iraq has descended into a state of full-blown civil war. NBC News chose to make, as CBS Evening News producer Rome Hartman put it, a "political statement" by pronouncing on an issue that is still the subject of considerable debate. "To indicate failure... of U.S. policy in Iraq" is one of the reasons why.
The other reason is this: The unofficial White House view of the American media is that they are unrepresentative of the public and driven by the left-leaning agenda of their elite. Members of the press have, to put it mildly, a very different view of their role in American democracy. As Allah pointed out yesterday, NBC News and the New York Times believe, and not without reason, that the election has given them cover to push back against the administration as hard as possible — an effort that has actually been intensifying since Katrina.
Call that whatever you want. Just don't call it objectivity.
Video here.
11/29 06:50 PM
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