Media-related

** Powell defends attack on Baghdad hotel

"Our review of the April 8 incident indicates that the use of force was justified and the amount of force was proportionate to the threat against United States forces," Mr Powell wrote in a letter to Ana Palacio dated April 21."

Since when is force proportionate vs. the big bad USA? Plain nonsense.

"The US commander also stated that he did not know the hotel was a major base for journalists, although US intelligence had been made aware of their presence."



** Think Tanks and media - The rich get richer

"Much like in the global economy, in the world of the think tanks that dominate the mass media, the rich have gotten richer.

There has been little shuffling at the top of the most cited think-tank list, based on references to the group in major papers and broadcast transcripts in the Nexis database. Once again, the Brookings Institution led the way, with close to 3,000 citations among major newspapers and television and radio transcripts."



** FAIR.org's Norman Solomon on 'being in the same line of fire from big media for the sin of strongly challenging the president's war agenda.'

"So, on the April 22 edition of CNN's "Moneyline" program, host Lou Dobbs (with an American flag pin in his lapel) summed up a news report this way: "Blix appearing for all the world to look like a petulant U.N. bureaucrat about a month to go before his retirement." Mainstream U.S. reporters rarely apply an adjective like "petulant" to petulant administration officials like, say, Ari Fleischer. But then again, Fleischer doesn't challenge U.S. foreign policy. Dennis Kucinich does. The four-term U.S. representative from Ohio is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination. And some media pundits find his anti-war views outrageous."