JAYSON BLAIR LET THE MEDIA OFF THE HOOK
Most Americans remember media coverage of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, an American prisoner of war in Iraq. Her rescue, conveniently captured on camera, was one of the enduring images of the war.

Of course, The Toronto Star and other foreign media outlets later reported that Pvt. Lynch was actually treated well by the Iraqi doctors, contrary to that which was implied in the domestic media. “She was assigned the only specialist bed in the hospital and one of only two nurses on the floor,” according to the BBC.

Now, the BBC is revealing that she was not shot or stabbed, according to a Pentagon report on the topic, which also concluded that her injuries were the result of an auto accident. (thank god for the BBC or else I’d never know anything about what was going on)

The BBC added, “the US military knew there were no Iraqi forces guarding the hospital, and quoted a local doctor saying that the troops used blank rounds to ‘make a show’ of the operation. Dr Anmar Uday, who worked at the hospital, said: ‘It was like a Hollywood film. They cried: 'Go, go, go', with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show for the American attack on the hospital - action movies like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan.’ But the Pentagon denied that blanks were used, and said all the procedures used were consistent with normal operations when there is a threat of encountering hostile forces.”

They say truth is the first casuality of war. Ain’t that the, uh, truth!

I am increasingly convinced that the Jayson Blair scandal let the news media off the hook. The media has a lot of problems, the least of which is reporters outright fabricating stories. That’s certainly the most egregious sin a journalist can commit, but it’s hardly the most pervasive. Manipulation by the powers that be, that is arguably the greatest challenge facing the news media today.

This is a surprising development for a news media that has always rated skepticism as its greatest virtue, boasted of its fearlessness, of its willingness to take on anyone. Woodward and Bernstein may not have invented the watchdog media, but they made its legend.

Now, the journalists, especially national reporters, are most concerned about access. They want to be in the high-profile position of asking questions of the president, even if those questions are softballs. Better to be able to ask the question than to actually reveal something important with the question. While individual journalists might not care if their reporting pisses off advertisers, they are but a cog in a giant machine; publishers have bottom lines to consider and stockholders to report to.

Reporters are their most malleable on foreign policy issues. Again, it’s all about access. No one wants to be accused of being unpatriotic, especially a journalist or a corporate news bureau whose work would be seriously undermined by such an allegation. Because war correspondents are inherently vulernable in the field, it makes it even harder for them to take risks to get the real story. If they “embed” themselves with a military unit, they will be safer, but their objectivity will surely be compromised. Not because these journalists are bad or corruptible people, but because when you rely on a group for your personal security, your relationship with them necessarily changes. I don’t condemn these journalists for not wanting to become martyrs. But we must take their work for what it is: the best they could do under the circumstances, but to be taken with a grain of salt.

This is why the mainstream press swallowed the Pvt. Lynch story hook, line and sinker. It was a great story and simple to present: good vs. evil, black vs. white, small town girl vs. Saddam’s henchmen. They WANTED to believe it was true.

Why does this manipulation of the media by the powers that be occur? Because it’s a symbiotic relationship. The government (not just this particular administration) uses the media to push its agenda. The media uses to government as a crutch. It’s much easier for CNN to play a clip of Donald Rumsfeld’s comments and then have a Democrat spouting the “standard liberal” line and a Republican parroting the administration’s line than it is for CNN to do some actual reporting on the content of Rumsfeld’s remarks. It’s much easier for ABC to air a group of yapping heads yacking on for 20 minutes about “who’s hot” and “who’s not” in the Washington political GAME than it is for ABC to use that 20 minutes to report on Social Security or health care or military spending. It’s easier for even NPR to commission a poll and then spend time analyzing it as though it’s real news than it is for them to report on actual real news. All this while solemnly swearing that they “don’t make news, just report it.” It’s lazy journalism, and it’s barely journalism at all.

The Jayson Blair scandal let the media off the hook. Any right thinking journalist (or person) was always going to condemn Blair. Some said it was the result of The New York Times’ diversity policy, even though no one cited such things when a white Boston Globe reporter was fired for the same offense. Other media people simply dismissed Blair as a phenomenon unique to the Times, because, according to them, it could never happen at their paper. Most deplored that this one bad seed seemed to sap the credibility of the entire media profession. But few in the media urged their colleagues to stop, think and take a good look in the mirror. They allowed the Blair scandal to paper over these other, more structural, problems.

I commend the special operations forces who rescued Pvt. Lynch. Their job was to save their comrade and they did it well. I only wish the media adhered to such high standards.