Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman on the true role of journalists:
That media is broken right now. And I think the embedding process has brought the media to an all time low. You have reporters embedded in the front lines of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. What about being embedded in Iraqi hospitals and Afghan communities? In the peace movement around the world? And not only the problem of embedding in troops. But the problem is being embedded in the establishment.
We occupy an uncomfortable position. We’re supposed to be outside. It’s not one that gets a lot of perks, it’s one that makes journalism so important to the functioning of a democratic society. Now, I’ll tell you, especially around issues around war. And we see just the failing, once again, in the press, not bringing up questions about the expansion of war in Afghanistan. And the same way that questions weren’t asked in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq.
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald on what the mainstream media is largely ignoring:
Look at our policy toward Israel, and this continuous blind support for whatever the Israeli government does. Something that’s about to get even more harmful to our interests now that there’s a very right wing extremist party with racist factions within the government in Israel. Polls show that if you ask Americans do you think the U.S. Government should be on the side of Israel, on the side of the Palestinians, or should be even-handed? Seventy percent, seven out of ten, will say that the government should be even-handed in that conflict. And yet, that is an opinion that is virtually never heard. Debates about our policy toward Israel is something that is essentially frozen out.