Corporate Executives Pressured Journalists on Iraq

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 8:29 AM on May 29, 2008.

Bill Moyers had a PBS special last year called, “Buying the War,” which included all kinds of fascinating insights on the journalistic malpractice at the nation’s major news outlets leading up to the war in Iraq. Most notably, Moyers pressed Walter Isaacson, former chairman and CEO of CNN, to explain what transpired. Isaacson noted there was “almost a patriotism police” after 9/11 and when the network showed civilian casualties it would get phone calls: “Big people in corporations were calling up and saying, ‘You’re being anti-American here.’”

The notion that corporate executives would lean on the executives at news networks was more than a little disconcerting. But it’s just as important to realize that journalists were also under pressure to deliberately sell the public a bill of goods.

Last night, CNN congressional correspondent Jessica Yellin made a startling concession on the air.

It’s not every day that a broadcast journalist at a major network acknowledges for a national audience that she was “under enormous pressure from corporate executives,” who later edited her pieces and pushed her in specific pro-war directions.

This is, by any measure, no small admission.

For those who can’t watch clips online, here’s the transcript of the relevant portion:

COOPER: Jessica, McClellan took press to task for not upholding their reputation. He writes: “The National Press Corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq. The ‘liberal media’ — in quotes — didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”

Dan Bartlett, former Bush adviser, called the allegation “total crap.” What is your take? Did the press corps drop the ball?

YELLIN: I wouldn’t go that far.

I think the press corps dropped the ball at the beginning. When the lead-up to the war began, the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war that was presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings.

And my own experience at the White House was that, the higher the president’s approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president.

I think, over time…

COOPER: You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?

YELLIN: Not in that exact — they wouldn’t say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces. They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical and try to put on pieces that were more positive, yes. That was my experience.

At the risk of sounding demanding, maybe someone could do a little follow-up with Yellin? Like, for example, asking her to offer a few more details about corporate executives pressuring her to “put on positive stories about the president”?

She noted that she wasn’t with CNN at the time. According to her Wiki page, Yellin worked for MSNBC before becoming a White House correspondent for ABC News.

Which of these networks intentionally edited broadcast pieces to favor Bush? Which turned down stories critical of the administration?

And how many of the executives involved with such behavior are still working at the networks today?

Tagged as: media, iraq