It looks like Scott McClellan is not the only person debunking the myth of the "liberal media."
On Michael Calderone's Politico blog, CNN's Jessica Yellin is cited as having this conversation with Anderson Cooper last night on AC 360:
"The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings," Yellin said.
"And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time...."
First it's Bush's Press Secretary, now it's a traditional media reporter. They can't blame this on "liberal bloggers" any more.
The post continues:
But then a shocked Cooper jumped in, asking, "You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?"
"Not in that exact.... They wouldn't say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces," Yellin said. "They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience."
Yellin has been at serveral news organizations, but it looks like she was at MSNBC at the time that this pressure was being exerted on her reporting.
Hmmm...I wonder if General Electric's business interests in the Defense Industry have anything to do do with this?
Pehaps it's time we change the term from "Military-Industrial Complex" to the "Military-Media-Industrial Complex"
What is remarkable is that this apparently occurred at a network seen now as sympathetic to the dems. Of course, things were different back in 2003.
CNN is going to trot her out to clarify that she was not at CNN when this pressure occurred, but let's not delude ourselves, shall we?
Most traditional media organizations were derelict in the run up to the war, even The New York Times. Who knows if they were motivated by affiliated business interests, a desire to go with the flow regardless of the truth, or a desire for a war guaranteed to generate ratings and provide opportunities for glory and Pulitzer prizes.
But the traditional media were accomplices in the unnecessary deaths of 4000 Americans.
You can see why David Gregory and others are getting so defennsive.
But perhaps the highly visible pundits and correspondents are not the only bad actors.
Perhaps it is the nameless, faceless producers and corporate executives that are most responsible for undermining our democracy by pressuring their reporters to willfully spread pro-GOP propaganda.
In fact, I wonder if the Gregories and other deferential shills are merely taking the hit for their bosses right now.
This may explain why reporters seem to like Democrats personally, but the broader media narratives are usually biased against Democrats.
The reporters may or may not be personally sympathetic to progressivism, but that is irrelevant if their far more influential bosses are not.
We need to shine more light on these people. They may be more of a problem than the usual suspects.
UPDATE: H/T to MAORCA in the comments for the video: