With the MSM is controlled by corporate America, the only so-called "news" you get is what they decide you will get. There is no real free press in this country any more.

Note how the Hillary/NAFTA/Canada story has been buried. That is no accident. Obama is an outsider and to preserve the status quo and keep power where they want it, they can take him on which is why that story was given such wide coverage with it concerned him. The story about the Clinton fraud trial to be held in Los Angeles has been given absoutely no coverage by the MSM. They take care of their own. Of course also look at the burying of the truth about GW Bush and his so-called "service" in the national guard. Remember the cheerleading and sickening lack of investigative reporting leading up to the Iraq war? The MSM in this country are as responsible as any one else for that catastrophe.

If we had a truly independent media things rather than one owned by Time/Warner and GE, etc things would probably be different. Their independence is the quality I admire about the British, Australian and much of the European press and that is where I continue to go to find out what is happening in this country.

I heard some of Power's BBC interview this a.m. She's actually a very good spokesman for Obama with the grave exception of that "gotcha" moment. Shame on Ms. Power for presuming that the press in Britain were as malleable.

But there is an oligarchy in Great Britain as well as the U.S. They are as interconnected as the royal families of Europe were a hundred and fifty years ago. Don't for a minute think that there wasn't some consideration made somewhere that apprised how this comment, spun correctly, would affect our campaign.

I would have preferred the reporter, or any reporters now that Power is no longer attached to the Obama campaign, going to Power and asking her precisely why she described Clinton as being a monster. In the BBC interview she made a very positive defense of Obama's desire to seek the Presidency. I for one would like her to explain the difference between Obama's quest and Hillary's.

Jon Stewart is popular because his faux news show reveals more truth than either Fox or CNN. Think about it - people getting better perspective from a comedy show than CNN. His calling Tucker Carlson a 'dick' on television capped a brilliant demolition of Crossfire that ultimately led to its cancellation. The complete interview is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE

What Carlson describes perfectly fits the role of the propagandist. He passes on what the powerful wish him to pass on. Nothing more, nothing else. And he has the gall to belittle the Scotsman. Unbelievable.

After reading the article and watching the video interview with Bolten I was reminded of who I believe are the best (and bravest) journalists working in the U.S. now: Stephen Colbert, Helen Thomas and Dan Rather.

Here is a clip of Stephen Colbert skewering President Bush at the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 2006 (with excerpts of Helen Thomas questioning Bush):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-oMlBSiX3g&feature=related

And here is an excellent special Dan Rather did for HDNet on "Touchscreen Voting" (a special you would NEVER see on mainstream American television):

http://www.hd.net/drr227.html

Now if we could just be blessed with another Woodward and Bernstein duo....

I may disagree, Glenn.

Peev should have exercised a better judgment and understanding the consequences of publishing the gaffe or slip of the tongue in the moment of sincerity.

But instead she wanted the cheap scoring points and sensationalism, just like many USA journalists.

I do agree with the gist of your post, but calling the HRC a monster did not have to be published...

You may be the new Karl Rove. I'll alert my contacts at the DNC; I don't think they realize just how out-of-date they are. ;-)

Thanks for the laugh to go with my coffee this morning.

man, you're good. I'd pay to see it. but are you sure about the flava flav thing? Shouldn't it be a turbaned Obama, somali traditional garb, with Osama jumping out and opening the door?

I think that Carlson was right in part, though he was wrong enough that it is hard to see the part he did get right. Ms. Power was accustomed to speaking with American reporters. American reporters would not have printed her remark. A British reporter would. This is because there are different standards for on and off the record remarks in America and Great Britain. That doesn't make the American press subservient any more than spelling color without the letter u makes Americans more efficient.

The mistake the reporter made was to take advantage of the difference to get an attention grabbing quote into the paper. She did not realize, and apparently doesn't yet, that doing so would make her look unscrupulous to American reporters and American sources. Since American sources have no interest in talking to unscrupulous reporters, she will have less access and has hurt her own career in the long run.

She ought to have told Ms. Power that "off the record" didn't work that way and have given her a Mulligan on that one remark.

Tucker Carlson and Tim Russert are perfect examples of how shameful and worthless American "journalism" has become. If we had such a jellyfish, lapdog press corps back in the early 1970's, Nixon would have gotten away scott free. Which, given the ideological bent of many in the media, may be precisely the point.

I've been yearning for the past seven years for a reporter - a true reporter and not a human mimeograph machine- to ask difficult and probing questions of our leaders. And not to give up on the half-answers given, but to probe and be relentless until the truth emerges. I've never seen a reporter ask a serious question of George W. Bush who didn't immediately waffle after the "Decider" became petulant.

What American journalism- and more to the point, American society- needs most is interviews in the vein of what was demonstrated in this clip. Russert, Carlson and their ilk have completely forgotten the role of the fourth estate - elected government officials work FOR US, not the other way around.

Imagine how many lives would have been saved had we had dilligent and active journalists in the run up to the disaster in Iraq.