Drone Drone Drone Drone

Christiane Amanpour lays it out:

As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administration line in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.

On last week's Topic A With Tina Brown on CNBC, Brown, the former Talk magazine editor, asked comedian Al Franken, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and Amanpour if "we in the media, as much as in the administration, drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the war."

Said Amanpour: "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."

Brown then asked Amanpour if there was any story during the war that she couldn't report.

"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone," Amanpour said. "It's a question of being rigorous. It's really a question of really asking the questions. All of the entire body politic in my view, whether it's the administration, the intelligence, the journalists, whoever, did not ask enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the highest levels."

Fox responds:

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

That about says it all doesn't it? We are dealing with people who live in a black and white world (or, at least, want us to live in such a world). These are people who quite literally believe that the only choices available are to be a supporter of Bush or a supporter of al-Qaeda (and notice how Amanpour was talking about Iraq but the Fox spokes-drone automatically translates the topic to al-Qaeda).

Let's all be good drones now. Let's all follow the example of Britney Spears and not question authority. They know better than us. Let's just go out and buy our CDs, sip our Diet Cokes, go watch the latest garbage at the cineplex and not worry our pretty little heads about the big issues of the day. Daddy Bush will take care of it for us.

Being a vegetable is so much more relaxing isn't it?

Update: The more I think about this the more outrageous I realize this is. The spokesdrone for FOX has essentially admitted two things: her network is a propaganda organ for Bush and anyone who doesn't fall in line should be considered enemies of the state. Furthermore, this statement is so blatant that it indicates that they no longer feel the need to hide their true feelings on this matter behind some veneer of respectable journalism.