And how is it any different in America?
You really sound terribly self-satisfied reporting matters like this about Russia or China, and the facts simply do not warrant it.
American television broadcasting is totally subservient to the Washington establishment. Shamefully so.
There isn't one anchor or commentator, including PBS, who dares voice any hard analysis or serious criticism of the literally incompetent Bush.
Indeed these broadcasters, plus major newspapers like The Times, always provide the melodramatic drumbeat leading into stupid acts like the Iraq invasion. It was the same for that colossal waste of life in Vietnam.
When anyone in a public broadcasting position does anything different to that in America, he/she is in trouble.
Look at the quality journalists involved in the Operation Tailwind report concerning Vietnam some years back. They all lost their jobs, yet I am sure the essence of that story was true.
Look at what happened to Dan Rather - normally a pretty Milquetoast anchor - when he reported material on Bush's shameful Vietnam era record. The essence of that report was also true, yet Rather became history.
On the other hand, errors the other way are never hurtful to careers. CNN showing a ridiculous amateur film about a mythical al Qaeda mountain-redoubt weapons lab testing poisons on dogs. The shoddiest pure propaganda.
The New York Times hounding Wen Ho Lee out of his job and reputation on the basis of gossip from the often-incompetent FBI.
There are numberless examples, including the hounding of an innocent Richard Jewel for a bombing in which he actually had been more a hero than a villain.
Smirky self-satisfaction just does not belong on the faces of news sources, but it is common in America.
Judith Miller, just one of The New York Times past glories
