THE "LIBERAL" MEDIA REACTS TO McCLELLAN

The news anchors of the major networks were on the Today Show and 2 of the 3 offered a glimpse of the pressure brought to bear upon them by the White House. Private individuals, such as Scott Ritter, were also viciously attacked for opposing the Iraq War.

Network anchors differ on Iraq war coverage
In wake of ex-White House aide’s new book, trio debate media’s role

By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 7:14 a.m. MT, Wed., May. 28, 2008

[Brian] Williams agreed that the White House put tremendous pressure on news organizations to hew to the scripted administration line. “I was in Kuwait for the buildup to the war, and, yes, we heard from the Pentagon, on my cell phone, the minute they heard us report something that they didn’t like. The tone of that time was quite extraordinary.”

Couric remembered similar pressure: “I remember doing an interview and the press secretary called our executive producer and said, ‘We didn’t like the tone of that interview.’ And we said, ‘Well, tough. We had to ask some of these questions.’ And they said, ‘If you keep it up, we’re gonna block access to you during the war.’ ”

“There was such a significant march to war, and people who questioned it very early on and as the war progressed were really considered unpatriotic,” added Couric. “I think that it did affect the level of aggressiveness that was exercised by the media, I really do.”