U.S. Media Cowed by Patriotic Fever, Matthew Engel, Guardian
CBS news anchor Dan Rather admitted in a recent interview with the BBC that he, like many American journalists, suppressed several key questions about the war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks because he felt pressure to conform to patriotic sentiment. The subtle coercion Rather felt, writes Matthew Engel in the Guardian, came both from the network and from his own surge of national allegiance. The result? A badly informed and misguided public. "Limiting access [and] limiting information to cover the backsides of those who are in charge of the war is extremely dangerous and cannot and should not be accepted," Rather said. "And I am sorry to say that, up to and including the moment of this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted by the American people. And the current administration revels in that, they relish that, and they take refuge in that."
--Julie Madsen
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