I often check the internet for the latest news and general information. A number of web sites warrant a daily visit, like antiwar.com and counterpunch.org. Both of these sites also offer archives of previous commentaries by their contributors.

I have a single personal observation to offer regarding the major media’s coverage of events. On the morning of September 26, 2005, I watched the Headline News broadcast (Robin & Company) around 6:30 am to view a recap of the busy weekend of antiwar demonstrations in Washington, DC. In their sound bite for the demonstrations, they offered only a single pro-Bush speaker, one of the very few that came to counter the many thousands demonstrating against the war in Iraq. I could not help but be astounded by this portrayal of the previous day’s events. It is certainly not the only time I have noticed.

The following are several notable sites that address the role of the press (in its various forms over different media) in serving as a watchdog over our government, to monitor and reveal mismanagement, corruption and misbehavior. Freedom of the press is important in our democracy but the press must also accept that important role of the watchdog rather than just becoming the mouthpiece for the government.

Note that a number of documentaries and video clips (including MSNBC’s Countdown) are linked in the page of documentaries and movies.

Iraq:

Finally, the Story of the Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War by Norman Solomon (09/26/2008)

CNN/MSNBC reporter: Corporate executives forced pro-Bush, pro-war narrative by Glenn Greenwald (05/29/2008)

Pentagon Pundit Scandal Broke the Law by Diane Farsetta and Sheldon Rampton (04/28/2008)

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand by David Barstow (04/20/2008)

Major revelation: U.S. media deceitfully disseminates government propaganda by Glenn Greenwald (04/20/2008)

Frontline (Bush’s War): Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late by Ray McGovern (03/27/2008)

How the spooks took over the news by Nick Davies (02/11/2008)

Suppressing the Truths of War by Mara Revkin (07/18/2007)

Inside TV News: We Were Silenced by the Drums of War by Jeff Cohen (12/26/2006)

Useful Idiots by Nicholas von Hoffman (10/23/2006)

The Return of the Death Squads by John Pilger (05/05/2006)

Lapdogs Cowardly and clueless, the U.S. media abandoned its post as Bush led the country into a disastrous war by Eric Boehlert (05/04/2006)

The Zarqawi Gambit, Revisited by Greg Weiher (04/18/2006)

Journalism Under Siege in Baghdad by Tom Engelhardt and Orville Schell (03/15/2006)

Lap Dogs of the Press by Helen Thomas (03/15/2006)

Look to The Onion for Accurate War Coverage by John Nichols (01/02/2006)

Death By Torture: US Media Ignores Hard Evidence by Peter Phillips (12/02/2005)

The Weekly Standard’s War by Scott McConnell (11/21/2005)

The Man Who Sold the War; Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war by James Bamford (11/17/2005)

NY Times Skews the News… Again by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst (08/30/2005)

Papers Reach Iraq Boiling Point by Greg Mitchell (06/08/2005)

Media Coverage of Intelligence Manipulation Reflects Public Acceptance of Imperial Presidency by Ivan Eland (05/17/2005)

You Call This Normal? The New York Times in Fallujah by Mike Whitney (04/18/2005)

Covering up Iraq by Zaid Al-Ali (03/24/2005)

The Media on Iraq: Too Much Stenography, Not Enough Curiosity by Norman Solomon (02/05/2005)

The Duplicity of the Media - Iraq vs. Tsunami by Mike Whitney (12/31/2004)

Disappearing Act - Fallujah and the Media by Mike Whitney (12/27/2004)

4 Ways to Find Out What’s Really Happening in Iraq by Doug Ireland (12/24/2004)

Rewarding Incompetence by Cindy Sheehan (12/23/2004)

Media Cowardice and Iraq by Tom Engelhardt and Michael Massing (11/23/2004)

Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Program, Supported al Qaeda by PIPA (10/21/2004)


Reports that Bush wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera in 2004:

Neocon Group Calls for Military Strikes on Media by Jeremy Scahill (05/22/2009)

Did Bush Plan to Bomb al-Jazeera? by Juan Cole (11/30/2005)

Bush V Al-Jazeera: Fact or Fancy? by jpol (/11/26/2005)

I'll go to jail to print the truth about Bush and al-Jazeera by Boris Johnson (11/24/2005)

U.K. charges official with leaking Blair memo, Document allegedly says PM dissuaded Bush push for attack on Al-Jazeera (11/22/2005)


Other, general topics:

GE's silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe by Glenn Greenwald (08/01/2009)

Celebrating Cronkite while ignoring what he did by Glenn Greenwald (07/18/2009)

45 Years Later, Serling’s ‘Signposts’ Still Unheeded by Kelley B. Vlahos (07/07/2009)

The ever changing story: Anatomy of a typical US military propaganda campaign by Christopher Dowd (06/05/2009)

Glenn Beck and the Rise of Fox News's Militia Media by Eric Boehlert (04/07/2009)

How Al-Jazeera makes one American think differently about war By Eric Calderwood (01/18/2009)

The Difficulty of Being an Informed American by Paul Craig Roberts (01/08/2009)

The Huffington Post: Israeli-Occupied Territory by Justin Raimondo (01/02/2009)

The government, the media and Afghanistan by Glenn Greenwald (09/11/2008)

One Angry Man; Is Keith Olbermann changing TV news? by Peter J. Boyer (06/23/2008)

The Lost Kristol Tapes by Jonathan Schwarz and Tom Engelhardt (04/15/2008)

How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the (Ticking) Bomb by Scott Horton (03/01/2008)

Courage for Dan Rather by Mary Mapes (09/20/2007)

American Media Misses the Boat: USA Today and the USS Liberty by Alison Weir (06/23/2007)

Defeat the Media Clones by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. (05/10/2007)

Imus and the Nappy-Headed Ho's by A.D Lelong (04/16/2007)

Suffering From Chronic Shock-Jock Syndrome: If Don Goes, Michelle, Bill, Rush, etc. etc. Should Go, Too by Lila Rajiva (04/14/2007)

Is the US Already at War With Iran? Maybe – But You Wouldn’t Know It by Reading the News by Charles Davis (04/02/007)

If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative. Special Report: How the Right Continues to Dominate the Sunday Talk Shows (March 2007)

In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR by Dana Milbank (01/26/2007)

The Disrespect for Truth has Brought a New Dark Age by Paul Craig Roberts (12/29/2006)

Media Disconnect from America: It's the Geography, Stupid by David Sirota (12/26/2006)

Has Fox News gone too far? by Keith Olbermann (includes video) (11/16/2006)

Critical Massing: The Press Critic's Press Critic On Iraq, The White House, And Why The New York Times Is — Gasp! — Doing A Good Job by Ankush Khardori (09/22/2006)

Bush's Primetime Lies Still Go Unchallenged by Rev. William Alberts (08/12/2006)

Wash Post Smears War Critics, Again by Robert Parry (06/21/2006)

Bullies and Bushies by William Norman Grigg (05/27/2006)

Did media miss real Colbert story? by Doug Elfman (05/07/2005)

Seymour Hersh versus the Bush Administration (and the DC Press Corps) by Robert Fisk (05/05/2006)

A new weapon in the 'war of ideas' by Ehsan Ahrari (05/04/2006)

Animal Farm in the Heartland: The Cartoon Controversy and Its Meaning by H. Arthur Scott Trask (03/08/2006)

Domestic Lying: The Question Journalists Don't Ask Bush by Norman Solomon (01/30/2006)

News organizations devote little attention to NSA spying story by Jamison Foser (01/20/2006)

'Fool Me Once...' by Eric Alterman (01/05/2006)

NSA Spied on Diplomats in Push for Iraq War and the American media ignored it by Norman Solomon (12/28/2005)

The New York Times and the NSA's Illegal Spying Operation: Time-Delayed Journalism by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (12/17/2005)

How the CIA Paid for Judy Miller's Stories; All the News That's Fit to Buy by Alexander Cockburn (/12/10/2005)

Fake News by William Marvel (10/18/2005)

New Orleans as Potemkin Village, One Big Sham by Dave Lindorff (09/17/2005)

Slurs, Lies and Innuendos: Blaming the Antiwar Messengers by Norman Solomon (08/17/2005)

What Are They Afraid Of? The 9-11 Op-Ed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Refuses to Run by Rep. Cynthia McKinney (08/10/2005)

Enabling Evil, Bush's Willing Executioners by Paul Craig Roberts (06/14/2005)

Talk Show Theology by William Norman Grigg (05/21/2005)

Newsweek and White House Hypocrisy by Dave Lindorff (05/19/2005)

No Evidence Required, Talk TV by Robert Jensen (05/19/2005)

The Media and the Madness Of Militarism by Norman Solomon (05/17/2005)

What Google Knows But the NYT Doesn't by Dave Lindorff (05/13/2005)

Hard Right Rage Against the Truth; Free Speech in the Crosshairs by Mike Whitney (05/07/2005)

Bush's War on the Press by Eric Alterman (04/21/2005)

Tanker in Chief by Michael Tomasky (04/11/2005)

Little Reporting on Paranoia in High Places by Norman Solomon (03/26/2005)

'Pseudo-Events' Stir Mideast Pot by Leon Hadar (03/12/2005)

The "CNN Factor" and Kosovo - Eason Jordan's true failings by Christopher Deliso  (03/11/2005)

The invisible wounded by Mark Benjamin (03/08/2005)

Target: Al Jazeera by Christopher Brauchli (03/05/2005)

Bribing and Twisting American Journalists by Brian Cloughley (02/24/2005)

Embedded in the spin cycle by Isaac Baker (02/17/2005)

'Good' Military Families vs. 'Bad' Military Families - Why did The New York Times run this story? by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst (02/04/2005)

From All Sides by Mariah Blake (Feb. 2005)

Extra! Extra! Read Nil About It! by Tom Engelhardt (01/25/2005)

No room for progressives on cable news inauguration coverage (01/21/2005)

Real TV News by Anthony Gregory (01/11/2005)

30 Books, Not One Review - Chomsky and Academic History by John H. Summers (01/08/2005)

Top Stories Ignored By U.S. Media in 2004

New York Times Says Tsunami Kills White People, Too! by Matthew Rothschild (12/29/2004)

Taking a Leak on the Bush Bulge by Dave Lindorff (11/10/2004)

Think Again: Michael Moore, Cause for War? by Eric Alterman (07/01/2004)

The Broadcast Indecency Act, An Indecent Attack on the First Amendment by Rep. Ron Paul (03/18/2004)

A Pox on Fox: Latest Lies From Fox News by Dale Steinreich (12/29/2003)

US Hypocrisy on War Crimes: Corporate Media Goes Along for the Ride by Peter Phillips (12/11/2003)

How US Manipulates News to Suit Its Interests (01/31/2003)


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created - Jan. 2005
last change - 11/29/2009