Posted 10:11 AM by Blah blah

NBC Fires Peter Arnett For Telling the Truth.
Help Me Boycott NBC News and Fox News.

I'm sending this letter to National Geographic Explorer, NBC News and Fox News now. Please email them too if you want to support more objective news coverage.

NBC Fires Peter Arnett Over Iraqi TV Interview (Reuters). This makes me SICK and ANGRY. He was called anti-American and fired for telling the truth:

"American television network NBC said on Monday it had severed its relations with veteran reporter Peter Arnett after he told Iraqi television that the U.S. war plan against Saddam Hussein had failed. 'Peter Arnett will no longer be reporting for NBC News and MSNBC,' NBC said in a joint statement with National Geographic, for whom the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter was also working.

'I said in that interview essentially what we all know about the war, that there have been delays in implementing policy, there have been surprises,' Arnett told NBC's Today show....

'It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview with state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war and it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions,' NBC said in a statement.

Arnett told the Iraqi television that American war planners had underestimated the determination of Iraqi troops to fight U.S. and British troops and that the Pentagon seemed to be amending its original strategy.

'Now America is reappraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week and rewriting the war plan,' Arnett said in excerpts of the interview aired on U.S. networks. 'The first plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another plan.'

He added there was a 'growing challenge to President Bush about the conduct of the war and also opposition to the war.'

That view echoed similar comments in many U.S. media after the rapid advance of U.S. forces through southern Iraq slowed south of Baghdad amid disruptive attacks on its long supply lines persistent resistance, particularly in the towns.

Arnett's remarks were received with anger by the administration in Washington. One White House source said they were based on 'a position of complete ignorance.' "
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Arnett rattles hornets' nest with Iraqi TV comments (San Francisco Chronicle):

"Arnett's appearance has already solidified the argument that one network, Fox News, has no qualms about waving the flag during this war. On Sunday night, Fox News took sole possession of the Arnett interview and whipped it into a media story by saying his actions were aiding Iraq....

The interview sent Fox News' John Gibson into an apoplectic fit of moral outrage -- also not exactly breaking news for him or the channel. 'Is he on the Iraqi side?' Gibson demanded...

'His comments seem to be supporting the Iraqi regime,' Gibson fumed, adding Arnett 'seems to be encouraging Iraqi resistance.' He ratcheted that up later with this: 'Arnett seemed to cheer the Iraqi resistance.' Gibson's less-than- veiled anti-American wink-wink to viewers continued as he suggested Arnett 'seems to have the run of Iraq.' Later: 'Peter Arnett is live in Baghdad and we may now know why.'

If you thought this televised indictment couldn't get any more journalistically unsound, Gibson then let former New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato unload this bomb on Arnett: 'He gives aid and comfort to the enemy.' "
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Bich Ngoc just told me she belongs to the MoveOn Media Corps, a group of "volunteers who will mobilize to push the media to fairly cover this war." We could join.

For Broadcast Media, Patriotism Pays (Washington Post):

"Now, apparently, is the time for all good radio and TV stations to come to the aid of their country's war. That is the message pushed by broadcast news consultants, who've been advising news and talk stations across the nation to wave the flag and downplay protest against the war.

'Get the following production pieces in the studio NOW: . . . Patriotic music that makes you cry, salute, get cold chills! Go for the emotion,' advised McVay Media, a Cleveland-based consultant, in a "War Manual" memo to its station clients. ". . . Air the National Anthem at a specified time each day as long as the USA is at war.'

The company, which describes itself as the largest radio consultant in the world, also has been counseling talk show stations to 'Make sure your hosts aren't "over the top." Polarizing discussions are shaky ground. This is not the time to take cheap shots to get reaction . . . not when our young men and women are "in harm's way." '

The influential television-news consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates recently put it in even starker terms: Covering war protests may be harmful to a station's bottom line."