My wish is to have that story on every front page of every news media outlet all over the world. Especially Pakistan where both presidents can have a rap session about who are the most threatening women in their lives.LOL

Thank you, Deborah, for probably one of the most enlightening pieces I've read on the media and the current President of the US.

Sheesh - Helen Thomas, while maybe sharper than many of the butter knives in the White House press corps, is as hoodwinked as the rest of the American populace vis a vis the TWAT (The War Against Terror).. when will they wake up and smell the coffee? When will the Twin Towers/Fire in the Reichstag be exposed for the orchestrated fakery/casus belli it really was? I want to see Dick (birdshot) Cheney on trial. I want to see Rumsfeld, Rove, et al dangling from ropes. (Bush already dangles from strings) Call me an optimist.

From the article: "Bush in particular wants to sanitize who he talks to. They give him a list of reporters to call on -- which I've never seen done before -- and he sticks to the script... My requests are very simple. Usually it's like, "Why?" "Why did you do it?" "What's it all about?" If you're putting people's lives at risk, you should be able to answer questions like that."

Harper won't answer these questions either. In yet another page out of Bush's playbook, reporters who want to ask him questions must now sign a list so that his people can tell him who to call on for the easy questions.

In the 2004 election, only 15% of Canadians would have voted for George Bush, but this is the guy Harper chooses to emulate?

Just like big government big media is manipulated by a disturbingly small group. Despite this I believe that the leaders of a nation should be held to account if they are not responsive to national and even international media, as this is one of the most fundamental democratic checks and balances.

Conversly, big media needs to have stricter rules on ownership so that diversification provides it some defense from direct manipulation. This is especially true in the U.S. but our most recent Senate report on the topic is somewhat damning.

I ran across this little bit of truth that may answer why Harper wants to be a dictator with G. Bush & kill/murder innocents & be killed our boys & girls.
In the forties and fifties they invented a weapon that could wipe out mankind, if not life on earth. The thermonuclear H-bomb meant that if wealth was to be acquired it would have to be done stealthily and without upsetting governments. For this and other reasons big business around the world came together to formalize networks of influence with virtually limitless resources that transcended national boundaries and they began the final moves towards privatizing the Earth. They knew the main difficulty would be the nation state so they plotted its downfall. http://www.bilderberg.org/The
Why maybe Gordo is in such a hurry to Privatize & ultimately break up Canada with Harper in Quebec & stirring up the hard line separatists!

BC Dude
You may expect a visit from a representative of the Parallax Corporation.
I will hoist a drink at your funeral!

Regards,

Come on Jester. Everyone knows that Parallax is a cover for the real problem -- the Crab People!

So how come you and Yammer are poking fun at BC Dude, jesterjogger? Don't think the Bilderbergers have weird power, eh. Well, any organization that can invite a hundred or so of the world's most powerful people to its yearly convention and NOT be covered by the media, is indeed a powerful and secret organization, acting only in its own best interests.

tommymore, point taken, but I think Helen Thomas may not really be hoodwinked. Maybe she's always just done the best any American journalist could possibly do and still maintain her relevance and her job. I've never seen her lobing any softballs to any president. In a recent article, she actually speculates that the Arab nations just might be pissed off at American foreign policy in that area, and that this disenchantment may be the source of the terrorism--an idea which has come to be as out of favour as holocaust or Aids denialism in the US.

The mainstream press has become a joke. They purposely avoid the most important topics and ask soft questions of our so called leaders. If George Bush or little Stevie Harper refuse to take questions from the press they should be immediatly boycotted by all press members. Of course, it won't happen as most of the press supports these corporate sponsored phonies.
Why is all this money going into a military that supports illegal wars while healthcare and kyoto are forgotten? Why is the privatization of BC Hydro allowed to continue with little critical reporting?
There is some good independent press such as TheTyee, The Republic,Coop Radio and the internet, however now the corporate mutts want to privatize the internet. The mass mind is fed disinformation by the mainstream press. Like they say "the best propaganda is 90 truth". One can't call the press liars outright, however it is safe to say they are full of bullshit! They will be trying to sell us a common north american passport and currency real soon and the spin will be full on.

Yes, yes, the Parallax... *grooms mandibles*

I find a delicious irony in finding one of the scion's of American journalism interviewd and published in The Tyee.

Poking fun!?!
I'm dead serious although I suspect our friend BC Dude will not actually have a sudden heart attack like Ken Lay about to "sing" about bushco and the bildebergs faced with a long and most likely brutal prison term.
Sorry if it appeared that I was mocking you Dude.
Look at what is happening in Mexico right now and tell me that some sinister, covert(albeit barely) forces are NOT at work around the world undermining democracy in order to serve the interests of the global ruling class.
dttrc
dttce

So jesterjogger are u saying I should not tell truths & just sit back watchin TV like a good lil boy till it's to late
That may be your way but not mine and if U can see by these blogs I'm not alone!
The information I'm putting out is on the net as you can(t) see as I've also added the website. So where have I been a bad boy?
My & my granddaughters future is in OUR hands now!
There is a boycott (dion't buyy) in progress now against Petro Canada & S(Hell) I'll have to send it on my next blog if anyone is interested?
I'm A new breed of non consumer.

Helen thinks that going into Afghanistan was OK but I feel that Afgh. is a bigger problem than Iraq.
I've heard one Canadian Military Warrant Officer offer a worthwhile solution.
He felt that if the Americans withdrew from Afghanistan, it would greatly aid a peace process. The Afghans regard American occupation as the evil situation and rebels are using it to stir the pot.
However, their equipment is needed.
Possible solution? - Americans get out but give the UN forces access to your equipment.

At least in the case of Afghanistan there was a direct threat. That's where Al-Qaeda was based.

Not so in the case of Iraq. This is undoubtedly part of the reason that the mission has been a failure: the lack of a clear mission in the first place.

This war is not, unfortunately, a traditional war and it's hard to use traditional language to describe it. America is not at war with a "country" and yet we continue to use a vocabulary that discusses the mission in terms of geographical boundaries.

No wonder Chomsky is having a field day.

BC Dude, are you a new breed of consumer? How much Hite and This are you consuming? You should be comparing what you see in South Korea to Canada. I met a few "Englishie teachers" while was working a job in Korea and believe me, I wouldn't have them "teaching" my kids. It is a good place for people who can't get jobs in Canada, though..

Darcy.....

But to the people of Afghanistan, indeed it is a traditional war. They view the Americans as an occupational force. America's attitude of 'we'll give them freedom' should include the addendum 'whether they want it or not'.

In my opinion, the Afghans (and Iraq) don't give a tinker's damn about our brand of freedom. All they want is peace in their own country without occupational forces.

For the most part - and unfortunately - it was the Taliban that gave them that in the 1990s. Certainly, it was a training ground for terrorists but it was also a training ground for mercenaries of a few countries. Its terrain is ideal for this sort of thing since most of it is a sniper's paradise.

Last but not least - U.S. geologists discovered it has significant oil reserves.

Great column. Deborah, on a truly first class journalist. Sad to say, our press gallery in Ottawa is, if anything, worse. They all get to ask questions and all the questions get answered because it's all puffery. Our good journalists like Stevie Camweron, Andrew MacIntosh and Clare Hoy are all silenced and nobody asks why because there isn't anybody left to ask.

Good piece!

Rafe

Rafe, And, what about our "journalists" in B.C.? The Sun, Province and BCTV News have got to be the worst ever! Blatently biased reporting with the Fraser Institute as their #1 source of information.
Why don't you tackle the incestuouos nature of our local media and pursue and political, personnel and economic ties between them.
Write something with some balls, not just wimpy opinoin pieces that are not very informatilve or thought-provoking.

Now that Bell has bought out Chum TV & Radio stations (more profits for “$1.7 billion” shareholders, Chum stock up 50% today) 281 very talented group of people laid off!
Why don't they get together and start an Independent Radio-TV station with real news?
Owned & Operated "For the People By the People" no Government or Big biz money.
Just an idea whose time has come!
I for one would be willing to pay 40-50 bucks a month, multiplied by US people who are fed up with the Canwest rags and now Bell. What future for our youth?

What future for our youth?

Singing the ABC song for Korean kids.