Something quite dramatic happened after 9/11.

Not just the understandable anger that followed the terrorist atrocity, and the human desire for revenge.

What also died on that tragic day was the reputation of the US media.

Blinded by grief perhaps, the US media, the champion of free press the world over rolled over and bared its throat to the top dog, the President of the United States.

Unlike most dogs, Bush then tore out its throat.

In the build up to the war and during the ongoing war there was virtually no dissent, no voice in the wilderness saying,

'Hang on, wheres the evicence buster?'

The pugnacious, in your face magnificent servant of democracy, the US media,  was seconds out and counting, drunk on a misplaced sense of patriotism and blind idealism.

This wasn't the dogged press that hounded Nixon out of office for Watergate, that saw Clinton facing impeachment for a stupid blow job, it was supine, defanged and betrayed the American people.

For it swallowed everything  that the US administration fed it, without question, without fail and believed every last fantasy it was given.

It happily reported on a student's thesis as fact.

It believed faked documents from Niger demonstrating Iraqs fictional nuclear program.

It lapped up the 'wait and see' thrill of junior high school fairytales so common among war proponents rather than challenge and demand factual basis.

It short it became a fawning, sycophantic lap dog lacking any semblence of critical faculty.

Foreign journalists were sidelined when they asked awkward questions at Whitehouse briefings and were not invited to raise questions again.

Even worse, those same journalists that committed the crime of being uncooperative and questioning suddenly found themselves without a place at the table not even able to fight over scraps.

According to a BBC report, only an astonishing 3 out of some 1200 independant US radio stations presented an anti-war stance.

The Dixie Chicks, that criticised US war plans, suffered a 30% drop in their air-time.

Whereas the moronic gun chewing Britney Spears vapidly stated that (we should)

'trust our president in every decision'

and was lauded throughout the media as a patriot.

Clear Channel actually mobilised pro-war rallys.

Greg Dyke, the then director general of the BBC stated,

'We must be sure that we don't become Americanized'

and attacked the evident lack of objectivity and the gung-ho attitude of the supine US media.

Dyke further observed that America had,

'no news operation strong enough or brave enough to stand up against  the White House and Pentagon. Personally, I was shocked while in the United States by how unquestioning the broadcast news media was during this war.'

He further said that since the 11 September terrorist attacks, many American networks had,

'wrapped themselves in the American flag and swapped impartiality for patriotism'

Following the ongoing fiasco in Iraq that has cost the US both the war and its reputation, a March conference in the US about its coverage of the Iraq occupation has the following statement was made,

'a fear of appearing unpatriotic discouraged US journalists from doing more critical reporting during the run-up tio the invasion of Iraq'

Robert Sheer stated,

'There is no doubt that there is an atmosphere in the media of being out of sync with the punitive government'.

An example of this was a report, subsequently proven to be false, that suggested that Iraq was importing aluminium tubes that could be used to enrich uranium; clear evidence that Iraq was pursuing the development of a nuclear bomb.

The New York Times wrote,

'the first sign of a smoking gun may be a mushroom cloud.'

Bush subsequently used this in his State of the Union address last year.

When foreign newspapers exposed the falsehood, the NYT buried a small retraction at the foot of one of their inside pages.A

Nuclear experts later criticised the NYT saying,

'Had they simply asked us we would have told them it was baloney. But they didn't even attempt to verify it.'

Foreign journalists around the world looked on in dismay and quiet despair at the depths to which the reputation of the US media sank.

As late as this April, 2004, 60% of US citizens still believe that Saddam had WMDs and was responsible for 9/11.

The US media was guilty of allowing this fiction to remain percieved as fact in the public domain.

But all is not lost.

The mea culpa of the journalists conference in Berkley, California, recognised that the media had let the US down badly, and there are signs with a more pugnacious and less ingratiating attitude to deliberate misinformation from the Bush administration.

The willingness of the US press to show evidence of the systematic torture, rape and murder of detainees by US troops is a step in the right direction.

It now needs to go further, and demand the release of all photographic and video evidence that shows the rape of young boys in the care of US authority, the banging of iron bars against a detainees head until he collapses, the beating until open wounds are caused and the buggering of detainees with objects like broomhandles.

And these are just a few examples that have shocked the cognoscenti to the core.

Then they must take the next step, demand the resignation of Rumsfeld and call for the impeachment of Bush on grounds of gross incompetence, endangering US lives and lying to the country.

Only then can they regain the high ground that countless journalists before them earned with their blood sweat and tears and unerring nose for uncovering  the truth.

A strong democracy needs a strong and free press.

The US needs all the help it can get in restoring it's pride, and the media must be a cornerstone of that long and difficult struggle.

yechydda,