Jessica Yellin, formerly of MSNBC, has something she wants to tell you…
ANDERSON 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?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 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.
Pressure from corporate execs to not portray the war in a way contradictory to the masses who wanted it?
The spin has been that the government controled the media and pressured them into not reporting negatively about the war. Note, however, that she isn’t even close to saying that. In fact, her experience is telling us that it was advertisers that didn’t want their ads running on an “unpatriotic” network that were pulling all the strings.
Think about that for a minute. Now ask yourself: Who do you blame for that? The government for putting stuff out there, the corporations trying to control the news organizations, or the news organizations that supposedly acquiesced and covered it in a way that wouldn’t anger sponsors?
I know how I’d answer that question, but I’m interested to hear your take.
