Subject: "Why I Left 60 Minutes"; (video) book recommendation:
Getting the American people revved up to attack Iraq was
orchestrated.
1. This first, "Why I left 60 Minutes," is a sad story taken by the author, Professor Charles Lewis (Wikipedia link), from his new book, 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity (June 24, 2014)
"Why I left 60 Minutes,",* by Charles Lewis, Politico, June 29, 2014. Because they were trying to force a journalist with pride in himself and in his profession to lie, is why. It's a fascinating story, four pages.*
From the last page: "The best news about this crossroads moment [when he decided to quit 60 Minutes] was that after 11 years in the intense, cutthroat world of network television news, I still had some kind of inner compass. I was still unwilling to succumb completely to the lures of career ambition, financial security, peer pressure or conventional wisdom..... Beneath my polite, mild-mannered exterior, I’d developed a bullheaded determination not to be denied, misled or manipulated. "
2. See also, Professor Charles Lewis on with Bill Moyers: "War's First Casualty: the Truth" June 27, 2014. (video 26:46) for another sad story, much of which you might possibly know. One way you might know would be if you've been following along with me by email for enough years back. The video interview (link) is about the book (link) and how Charles Lewis came to write it. Keep in mind that Bill Moyers does not have everyone on who's just gotten a new book published. Bill Moyers has people on and talks with them for all to see because he believes that what they have to say is of particular importance. This in italics below is the book description from Amazon:
Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy, for government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” requires and assumes to some extent an informed citizenry. Unfortunately, for citizens in the United States and throughout the world, distinguishing between fact and fiction has always been a formidable challenge, often with real life and death consequences. But now it is more difficult and confusing than ever. The Internet Age makes comment indistinguishable from fact, and erodes authority. It is liberating but annihilating at the same time.
For those wielding power, whether in the private or the public sector, the increasingly sophisticated control of information is regarded as utterly essential to achieving success. Internal information is severely limited, including calendars, memoranda, phone logs and emails. History is sculpted by its absence.
Often those in power strictly control the flow of information, corroding and corrupting its content, of course, using newspapers, radio, television and other mass means of communication to carefully consolidate their authority and cover their crimes in a thick veneer of fervent racialism or nationalism. And always with the specter of some kind of imminent public threat, what Hannah Arendt called ‘objective enemies.’”
An epiphanic, public comment about the Bush “war on terror” years was made by an unidentified White House official revealing how information is managed and how the news media and the public itself are regarded by those in power: “[You journalists live] “in what we call the reality-based community. [But] that’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality . . . we’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” And yet, as aggressive as the Republican Bush administration was in attempting to define reality, the subsequent, Democratic Obama administration may be more so.
Into the battle for truth steps Charles Lewis, a pioneer of journalistic objectivity. His book looks at the various ways in which truth can be manipulated and distorted by governments, corporations, even loan individuals. He shows how truth is often distorted or diminished by delay: truth in time can save terrible erroneous choices. In part a history of communication in America, a cri de coeur for the principles and practice of objective reporting, and a journey into several notably labyrinths of deception, 935 Lies is a valorous search for honesty in an age of casual, sometimes malevolent distortion of the facts.
Larry
* Do note, that the reading of an article is unusual at Politico. Ads and links to other articles on the site are right in the middle of the article that one may be trying to read. Skip those pictures and article titles and keep reading--yes the text is all continuing the original article--until you get to where the round buttons are for going on to the next page(s).
--
It is in the expression of truly held understanding and beliefs not as debating but testing our own against whatever contrary views or contradiction might respond that one can sometimes learn.
--David R (link)
1. This first, "Why I left 60 Minutes," is a sad story taken by the author, Professor Charles Lewis (Wikipedia link), from his new book, 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity (June 24, 2014)
"Why I left 60 Minutes,",* by Charles Lewis, Politico, June 29, 2014. Because they were trying to force a journalist with pride in himself and in his profession to lie, is why. It's a fascinating story, four pages.*
From the last page: "The best news about this crossroads moment [when he decided to quit 60 Minutes] was that after 11 years in the intense, cutthroat world of network television news, I still had some kind of inner compass. I was still unwilling to succumb completely to the lures of career ambition, financial security, peer pressure or conventional wisdom..... Beneath my polite, mild-mannered exterior, I’d developed a bullheaded determination not to be denied, misled or manipulated. "
2. See also, Professor Charles Lewis on with Bill Moyers: "War's First Casualty: the Truth" June 27, 2014. (video 26:46) for another sad story, much of which you might possibly know. One way you might know would be if you've been following along with me by email for enough years back. The video interview (link) is about the book (link) and how Charles Lewis came to write it. Keep in mind that Bill Moyers does not have everyone on who's just gotten a new book published. Bill Moyers has people on and talks with them for all to see because he believes that what they have to say is of particular importance. This in italics below is the book description from Amazon:
Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy, for government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” requires and assumes to some extent an informed citizenry. Unfortunately, for citizens in the United States and throughout the world, distinguishing between fact and fiction has always been a formidable challenge, often with real life and death consequences. But now it is more difficult and confusing than ever. The Internet Age makes comment indistinguishable from fact, and erodes authority. It is liberating but annihilating at the same time.
For those wielding power, whether in the private or the public sector, the increasingly sophisticated control of information is regarded as utterly essential to achieving success. Internal information is severely limited, including calendars, memoranda, phone logs and emails. History is sculpted by its absence.
Often those in power strictly control the flow of information, corroding and corrupting its content, of course, using newspapers, radio, television and other mass means of communication to carefully consolidate their authority and cover their crimes in a thick veneer of fervent racialism or nationalism. And always with the specter of some kind of imminent public threat, what Hannah Arendt called ‘objective enemies.’”
An epiphanic, public comment about the Bush “war on terror” years was made by an unidentified White House official revealing how information is managed and how the news media and the public itself are regarded by those in power: “[You journalists live] “in what we call the reality-based community. [But] that’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality . . . we’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” And yet, as aggressive as the Republican Bush administration was in attempting to define reality, the subsequent, Democratic Obama administration may be more so.
Into the battle for truth steps Charles Lewis, a pioneer of journalistic objectivity. His book looks at the various ways in which truth can be manipulated and distorted by governments, corporations, even loan individuals. He shows how truth is often distorted or diminished by delay: truth in time can save terrible erroneous choices. In part a history of communication in America, a cri de coeur for the principles and practice of objective reporting, and a journey into several notably labyrinths of deception, 935 Lies is a valorous search for honesty in an age of casual, sometimes malevolent distortion of the facts.
Larry
* Do note, that the reading of an article is unusual at Politico. Ads and links to other articles on the site are right in the middle of the article that one may be trying to read. Skip those pictures and article titles and keep reading--yes the text is all continuing the original article--until you get to where the round buttons are for going on to the next page(s).
--
It is in the expression of truly held understanding and beliefs not as debating but testing our own against whatever contrary views or contradiction might respond that one can sometimes learn.
--David R (link)
