[lbo-talk] What is the Job of the Press? Was emails on Blackwater story

[Carrol Cox]

Chuck Grimes wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> The press didn't do its job in the build up to war on Iraq, nor the
> mass bombing raids on Afghanistan, nor the corruption of the Bush
> White House, nor the abuses of the intelligence community, the
> military, and on and on. So now they wonder why they are going broke?
> Who is supposed to buy newspapers that don't contain news?

(1)	As to the last point, only a very small proportion of newspaper
subscribers would be annoyed to the point of cancellation by the errors
of the press catalogued here. Hence these matters cannot have affected
the newspaper business in any way.  Papers are going broke for quite
other reasons than their faithful performance of their job.

(2)	Wi5th some mnor exceptions, the press "failures" Chuck lists are in
fact evidence that the press has been quite faithfully "doing its job."
The policies Chuck lists (Iraq, etc.) were NOT "Bush" policies; they
were the policies of the government of the United States, and the "job"
of the press is, quite simply, to support U.S. policy at home and
abroad. 

Carrol