The Fundamental Unreliability of America’s Media


By Glenn Greenwald, Salon

Consider the record of the American media over the last two weeks alone. Justin Elliott of TPM documents how an absolute falsehood about the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing — that Abdulmutallab purchased a “one-way ticket” to the U.S., when it was actually a round-trip ticket — has been repeated far and wide by U.S. media outlets as fact. Two weeks ago, Elliott similarly documented how an equally false claim from ABC News — that two of the Al Qaeda leaders behind that airliner attack had been released from Guantanamo — became entrenched as fact in media reports (at most, it was one, not two). This week, Dan Froomkin chronicles how completely discredited claims about Guantanamo recidivism rates continue to be uncritically ”reported” by The New York Times and then inserted into our debates as fact.

As I documented two weeks ago, government claims about which “top Al Qeada fighters” were killed by our airstrikes turn out to be untrue far more often than not, yet are always mindlessly featured by our media, ensuring little questioning of those actions; and now, at least two of the three Top Terrorists claimed to have been killed by our recent airstrikes in Yemen — and possibly all three — are quite likely alive. As Greg Sargent writes, one of the most provocative and inflammatory claims of the trashy Halperin/Heilmann gossip book — that Bill Clinton told Ted Kennedy that Obama would have been “getting us coffee” just a couple years earlier — is not only completely unsourced (like virtually every one of their sleazy claims), but also “paraphrased.”

Aside from falsity — and the fact that they become irreversibly lodged in our political culture as fact — what do all of these deceitful reports have in common? They’re all the by-product of granting anonymity to people and then repeating what they claim as fact, with the falsehood-disseminators protected by “journalists” from any and all accountability for their falsehoods. It’s exactly the same process that caused our leading media outlets to tell Americans about Iraq’s massive WMD program and Al Qaeda connections; Jessica Lynch’s heroic firefight with inhumane Iraqi devils and her “rescue” by our Marines; Pat Tillman’s death at the hands of Al Qaeda monsters; and government tests that “confirmed” the presence of bentonite in the anthrax used to attack the U.S., which meant it was likely that Saddam was behind the attacks.

Unjustified anonymity — especially when mindlessly repeating what shielded government sources claim in secret — is the single greatest enabler of false and deceitful ”reporting.” Despite (or, really, because of) its unparalleled record of producing lies, it will never stop, because agreeing to it is how “journalists” end up being selected as favored message-carrying servants for the powerful. This falsehood-producing method isn’t ancillary to American journalism but central to it; the book which is occupying the attention of America’s political and media class is based exclusively on unattributed, shielded sources, and that seems to bother none of them.

None of the falsehoods documented here will ever lead to any accountability, because the identity of the falsehood-producers will be shielded by their loyal journalist-servants, and the journalists themselves will simply claim that they wrote what they did because their hidden sources told them to. That’s not only the effect, but the intent, of the central method of American journalism: to disseminate outright falsehoods to the American public and ensure that neither the liars nor their loyal message-carriers ever face any consequences or even reputational loss. Anonymity is so common that “reporters” barely even bother any longer to explain why it’s justified, notwithstanding numerous policies of media outlets requiring exactly that explanation. As the use of anonymity has escalated rapidly, so, too, has the pervasiveness of outright falsehoods and the inherent unreliability of much of what the American media “reports.” Lying is so much easier — and thus so much more common — when you get to do it while remaining hidden.

Two other media points:

(1) I’ve been writing frequently of late about the perception disparities between Americans and the Muslim world due not to their propaganda-based ignorance but to our own. Here’s a somewhat old but highly illustrative example: in 1996, then-Secretary-of-State Madeleine Albright was asked by 60 Minutes about the fact that American sanctions on Iraq resulted in the deaths of “a half million children” — more than the number killed at Hiroshima — and Albright dismissively replied: ”We think the price is worth it.” At the time, FAIR documented that while the number of dead Iraqi children — as well as Albright’s quote — was known far and wide in predominantly Muslim countries, it was almost completely blacked-out in the American press. How many Americans know that our sanctions resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children?

(2) Last night, Brian Williams began his NBC News broadcast by expressing extreme and righteous anger over a truly momentous scandal: Mark McGwire’s steriod use, telling his audience: ”Because this is a family broadcast, we probably can’t say what we’d like to about the news today.” Wow, scathing. If Williams has expressed even a small inkling of an objection — let alone righteous outrage — over things like torture, lies that led to the Iraq War, chronic surveillance lawbreaking and the like, I’d be quite surprised. Walter Cronkite famously and unusually abandoned precepts of journalistic “objectivity” in order to stand up to the U.S. Government’s lies over the Vietnam War; Brian Williams — who was embedded in the Iraq War and was a reverent commentator regarding everyone involved — does so in order to stand up to a detested, powerless baseball player. In that contrast one finds a nice illustration of what our modern press corps is.

Views: 39

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by Jeff on January 12, 2010 at 3:36pm
I do. I kept the cable for the cat.

Actually we disconnected cable a couple of years ago. I can download any movie ever recorded in widescreen HD format, watched 'Precious' a couple of weeks ago, and don't need to go out.

And I can access mainstream media from right here, and to be honest there are some benefits. As an example, even though there are hundreds of pages the CDC had all of the truths about the H1N1 Swine Flu on their web site. You just had to search, which I did. Even Fox sometimes posts the truth. It's all still a minefield of lies but there are some truths.

Peace
Comment by Jeff on January 12, 2010 at 12:25pm
Funny
Comment by Jeff on January 12, 2010 at 12:24pm
Even cable and satellite stations are questionable Greg. I disconnected our cable TV about two years ago and I wish I never watched it, ever.

What a bunch of bilge water crap.

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Is this proof that the story about Charlie Kirk's assassination is false?
"Less Prone as usual the official version of the truth does not match the evidence and is labeled…"
yesterday
Less Prone commented on Doc Vega's blog post This Memorable Anthem Given by Nick Freitas Hit the Nail on the Head Please Listen!
"Charlie Kirk was getting very critical against Israel and had turned down a lucrative deal from the…"
yesterday
Doc Vega's blog post was featured

The Army of Government Launched Psychopaths

They walk among us in most college towns. They seem relatively reasonable until political…See More
yesterday
Less Prone favorited Doc Vega's blog post Is this proof that the story about Charlie Kirk's assassination is false?
yesterday
Less Prone commented on Doc Vega's blog post Is this proof that the story about Charlie Kirk's assassination is false?
"Have to sign in to YT for this. So. What I do is to go to https://ytdown.io/en/ and download…"
yesterday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Was a Planned Civil War Averted?
"cheeki kea, you are spot on. The old guard is about to collapse! "
Thursday
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Alligator Creek and a Japanese Massacre
"cheeki kea, the Japanese thought they could expand their empire and exact enough damage on the US…"
Thursday
Michelle Reichert favorited Burbia's video
Wednesday
cheeki kea posted a video

NEW DOCUMENTARY - Dissent Into Madness

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: https://www.corbettreport.com/dissent-into-madness/What if the delusions of the dissidents are in fact real? What if their paranoid f...
Wednesday
cheeki kea commented on Doc Vega's blog post Alligator Creek and a Japanese Massacre
"Japan served themselves up no favours by inching out into the South Pacific as they soon found out.…"
Wednesday
cheeki kea commented on Doc Vega's blog post Was a Planned Civil War Averted?
"Their plans did not work out because we are the news now, and the old news is the enemy. "
Wednesday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Alligator Creek and a Japanese Massacre

The year is 1942 just a few months after the Pearl Harbor disaster. Despite losses suffered by the…See More
Tuesday
Doc Vega commented on Burbia's video
Thumbnail

CHARLIE KIRK WAS CNP! JOSH REEVES 9-11-25

"With all due respect this guy comes off as a drunken asshole and he didn't even  know who…"
Sep 29
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Was a Planned Civil War Averted?

We are living in sadly historic times where good and evil are in battle all the time. Not that this…See More
Sep 28
Sandy posted a photo
Sep 28
Less Prone posted a video

President Trump addresses U.N. General Assembly - FULL SPEECH

President Donald Trump speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.Full video here: https://www.c-span.org/event/white-house-event/preside...
Sep 28
Burbia posted a video

2 MIN AGO: Western Provinces MAJOR New WEXIT Announcement - Canada EXPLODES!

In a stunning turn of events, Western provinces just made a major new WEXIT announcement — and it’s shaking the foundations of Canadian unity. Is Western sep...
Sep 27
Doc Vega posted a blog post

How You Provoke a Civil War

In the world of counter intelligence which is simply one aspect of many pertaining to asymmetrical…See More
Sep 26
Burbia commented on Burbia's video
Thumbnail

CHARLIE KIRK WAS CNP! JOSH REEVES 9-11-25

"I don't follow as much with Josh Reeves than I use to. He seems to be a documentary producing…"
Sep 25
Burbia posted a video

CHARLIE KIRK WAS CNP! JOSH REEVES 9-11-25

DONATE-paypal-dayglow76@yahoo.comCashapp-reevesradioVenmo-Josh-Reeves-61FILMS AND AUDIOBOOKS DOWNLOAD STORE-https://store.payloadz.com/results/242828-josh-re...
Sep 25

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted