What Can And Cannot Be Spoken On Television

Glenn Greenwald has a really good article, What can and cannot be spoken on television. Ever notice that the media doesn't interview Iraqis about what's going on in their country? All the info I hear is usually from the US military or polticians. Well for the 5 anniversary of the war Charlie Rose interviewed Sinan Antoon and Ali Fadhil, an Iraqi professor and journalist and got an earful.

The same night ABC's Nightline had Peter Jennings talk to two Iraqis on the phone and was left wondering: "To be honest, sitting in this newsroom for the last many hours, I'm not quite sure how we get people on the phone. But we've had two phone calls like that tonight and the very least they are an admonition that if Americans end up in Baghdad, perhaps not everybody is going to welcome them."

Greenwald concludes: "Whenever things of this sort slip through, it illustrates just how narrow and controlled the standard script is. As Singel said in his email: 'The Rose video and the Jennings moment are such clear ruptures of what can and cannot be spoken on television.' And the most amazing part of all of it is that the conventional wisdom holds -- and the establishment press even believes -- that they are the 'liberal media,' meaning they are insufficiently reverent of our wars, our Republican leaders, and our military exploits. Imagine what it would look like if the media weren't 'liberal'."