{"id":7725,"date":"2006-06-19T13:42:14","date_gmt":"2006-06-19T17:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7725"},"modified":"2006-06-19T13:42:14","modified_gmt":"2006-06-19T17:42:14","slug":"i-ask-myself-every-day-why-the-media-have-become-so-complacent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/i-ask-myself-every-day-why-the-media-have-become-so-complacent\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I ask myself every day why the media have become so complacent’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m still working my way through Helen Thomas’ new book, “[tag]Watchdogs of Democracy[\/tag]?<\/a>,” which I’m enjoying very much, and it’s encouraging to see that the veteran White House reporter isn’t pulling any punches<\/a> while she promotes the book.<\/p>\n

White House legend [tag]Helen Thomas[\/tag], the longtime United Press International reporter who is now a syndicated columnist for Hearst, takes aim at her colleagues in a new book, saying that when it came to questioning President Bush in the weeks before the Iraq war, they were more lapdogs than watchdogs.<\/p>\n

“I ask myself every day why the media have become so complacent, complicit and gullible,” Thomas writes in Watchdogs of Democracy? (Scribner, $25), due in bookstores this week. “It all comes down to the 9\/11 terrorist attacks that led to fear among reporters of being considered ‘unpatriotic’ or ‘un-American.’ “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

NBC’s David Gregory told USA Today that he takes issue with some of Thomas’ conclusions, and defended his own work. “So I get it from both sides, but I don’t feel I held back in the least, or left questions unasked,” Gregory says. “I just don’t agree with the notion that we went easy.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that’s the wrong colleague to ask. Other than Thomas, David Gregory is the most assertive reporter in the briefing room. When Thomas complains about complacency, I suspect she’s not talking about Gregory specifically, but rather the political media establishment in general.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I’m delighted to see Helen Thomas’ rabblerousing — demanding answers of the White House and challenging reporters who don’t<\/i> demand answers of the White House. Tony Snow already seems tired of her after a month on the job. Good; it’s proof she’s doing her job correctly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m still working my way through Helen Thomas’ new book, “[tag]Watchdogs of Democracy[\/tag]?,” which I’m enjoying very much, and it’s encouraging to see that the veteran White House reporter isn’t pulling any punches while she promotes the book. White House legend [tag]Helen Thomas[\/tag], the longtime United Press International reporter who is now a syndicated columnist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}