I'm shocked!!
In an interesting interview published this week in Foreign Policy, Newsweek's Rod Nordland spoke about the difficulties of reporting from Iraq. He said that the Bush Administration has been largely successful in managing the news "to the extent that most Americans are not aware of just how dire it is and how little progress has been made" and revealed that some embedded reporters "have been blacklisted because the military wasn't happy with [their] work."
http://harpers.org/...
the article goes on to point out what most of us already know: the U.S. military is not allowing journalists access to areas where U.S. personnel have gone off the reservation and committed crimes.
last night I caught the final third of the film Elephant, Gus Van Sant's eerie and powerful take on the Columbine massacre.
there's a scene where the teenage perpetrators are unboxing the AK-47's just delivered to their home (how convenient). they had been watching a documentary on Hitler while waiting for the delivery. as they unboxed the weapons, you can hear the narrator talking about Goebbel's philosophy on propaganda and the news-- "from now on you will hear only what the Fuhrer wants you to hear".