Lara Logan, You Suck

[Jan Klimkowski]

Jan,
I don't know if you still work in the field of journalism,but I want to say that your ethics are very much in line with such rare folks as a John Pilger for instance.You are to be commended heartily.Here is John on "Democracy Now",talking about the state of journalism in the western press.

Keith - Pilger is 100% correct about journalists as contrasted with propagandists in that article.

If Geraldo Rivera and Lara Logan have journalist union cards, the union should revoke them immediately. They are not journalists.

Fwiw I have ethics and a moral conscience. On more than one occasion, when changes which blatantly misled and distorted the truth were made to a film I'd produced and directed, by my bosses, I've demanded that the unethical changes be removed. When this has been refused by my bosses, I've then asked that my name be taken off the film. On one occasion, when I was staff, I was "re-assigned" and my name was taken off. On another occasion, when I was freelance, I was fired.

There are plenty of journalists who function entirely without a moral conscience. They are usually driven by a combination of ambition, arrogance, ego, greed, desire to be "loved", and impressively profound stupidity. There are also a few who are either corrupt or who are assets of the Volkland Security Complex.

There's a famous quote from former DCIA Willliam Colby:

"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."

I've always regarded this as a carefully calculated boast designed to intimidate and mislead.

My own experience of two decades working for significant MSM organs such as the BBC is that most journalists are not owned by the secret services. However, certain individuals in key editorial positions may well be intel assets, and they are in a position to ensure that what is published or broadcast meets the secret service/national security agenda.

In Britain, there used to a formal system of media censorship on national security grounds, known as the D-Notice. See wiki at link below for an introductory overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DA-Notice

These intel assets in certain key editorial positions act as a sort of unofficial D-Notice system. They control what gets commissioned in the first place, and they also control the final editorial line.

Additionally, certain key correspondents most definitely display all the signs of being intel assets and of broadcasting directly from intelligence agency central.

As for me, I don't get hired much as a journalist now. A fully functioning moral conscience is regarded as a major disqualifier by most media organs.