Howard Kurtz, writing in the Washington Post, comments on the concerted effort by members of the Bush Administration in his Media Notes Extra column.
President Bush calls the conduct of the New York Times “disgraceful.” Vice President Cheney objects to the paper having won a Pulitzer Prize. A Republican congressman wants the Times prosecuted. National Review says its press credentials should be yanked. Radio commentator Tammy Bruce likens the paper to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Even by modern standards of media-bashing, the volume of vitriol being heaped upon the editors on Manhattan’s West 43rd Street is remarkable — especially considering that the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal also published accounts Friday of a secret administration program to monitor the financial transactions of terror suspects. So, in its later editions, did The Washington Post.
The Bush Administration wants to beat the New York Times like a pinata, but Greg Sargent has the best question at The American Prospect:
I just got off the phone with a spokesperson for the Treasury Department, and she’s refusing to explain why Treasury officials didn’t demand that the Wall Street Journal hold off on publishing the story about the U.S.’s secret financial surveillance program, the way they demanded it of the New York Times and the L.A. Times.
I belong to a Yahoo group for soldiers who were once tower rats, guarding the Pershing missile sites in Germany. It is a echo chamber for trashing the media and any one who doesn’t follow Bush. The meme that the media lost Iraq is already building.