{"id":355468,"date":"2018-04-06T05:33:06","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T04:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-doves-are-hawks-and-the-hawks-are-super-hawks\/"},"modified":"2018-04-06T05:33:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T04:33:06","slug":"the-doves-are-hawks-and-the-hawks-are-super-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-doves-are-hawks-and-the-hawks-are-super-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Doves Are Hawks and the Hawks Are Super-Hawks\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Janine Jackson interviewed Jeff Cohen about cable news hawks for the <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/karen-hobert-flynn-on-census-citizenship-jeff-cohen-on-cable-news-hawks\/\">March 10, 2018<\/a>, episode of <strong>CounterSpin<\/strong>. This is a lightly edited transcript.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"wrapperMI_1\" class=\"wrap-mjp  \" style=\"padding:5px 0px 40px 0px;margin:0px;width:100%\">\n<div class=\"Eabove-mjp\" id=\"Eabove-mjp_1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"subwrap-MI\">\n<div class=\"jp-innerwrap\">\n<div class=\"innerx\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerleft\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerright\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innertab\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"interface-mjp verdana-mjp\" style=\"height:71px\" id=\"interfaceMI_1\">\n<div class=\"MI-image Himg right-mjp\" id=\"MI_image_1\" style=\"width:auto;height:71px;overflow:hidden\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T_mp3j_1\" class=\"player-track-title left-mjp norm-mjp plain-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bars_holder\">\n<div class=\"loadMI_mp3j\" id=\"load_mp3j_1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"poscolMI_mp3j\" id=\"poscol_mp3j_1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"posbarMI_mp3j\" id=\"posbar_mp3j_1\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"P-Time-MI_1\" class=\"jp-play-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"T-Time-MI_1\" class=\"jp-total-time\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"statusMI_1\" class=\"statusMI\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"transport-MI\">\n<div class=\"play-mjp\" id=\"playpause_mp3j_1\">Play<\/div>\n<div class=\"stop-mjp\" id=\"stop_mp3j_1\">Stop<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"buttons-wrap-mjp\" id=\"buttons-wrap-mjp_1\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-popout-MI\" id=\"lpp_mp3j_1\">pop out<\/div>\n<div id=\"download_mp3j_1\" class=\"dloadmp3-MI\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mjp-volwrap\">\n<div class=\"MIsliderVolume\" id=\"vol_mp3j_1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt1\" id=\"innerExt1_1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"innerExt2\" id=\"innerExt2_1\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebetween-mjp\" id=\"Ebetween-mjp_1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"listwrap_mp3j\" id=\"L_mp3j_1\">\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<div class=\"playlist-colour\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"wrapper-mjp\">\n<ul class=\"ul-mjp darken1-mjp verdana-mjp med-mjp childNorm-mjp childPlain-mjp left-mjp\" id=\"UL_mp3j_1\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_1\" class=\"mp3j-finfo\">\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-sleeve\">\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_gif_1\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-gif\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_finfo_txt_1\" class=\"mp3j-finfo-txt\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-finfo-close\" id=\"mp3j_finfo_close_1\">X<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mp3j_dlf_1\" class=\"mp3j-dlframe\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mp3j-nosolution\" id=\"mp3j_nosolution_1\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"Ebelow-mjp\" id=\"Ebelow-mjp_1\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_1 = [<br \/>\n\t{ name: &#8220;1. 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Officials had intelligence that no one could have suspected was flawed. Reporters were swayed by persuasive government evidence. And alas, it went awry.<\/p>\n<p>The clear-eyed remember that <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/extra\/wrong-on-iraq-not-everyone\/\">not everyone got it wrong<\/a>. There were plenty of people who said the Iraq invasion, besides being illegal, besides being based on deceit, would be a human rights, political and ecological disaster. Those people just weren\u2019t on television.<\/p>\n<p>Who was? An endless round robin of retired military and intelligence officials, with reporters fawning over them rather than challenging them. As Cokie Roberts, then of <b>ABC News<\/b>\u2019<b> This Week<\/b>, put it to David Letterman, \u201cI am, I will just confess to you, a total sucker for the guys who stand up with all the ribbons on and stuff, and they say it\u2019s true and I\u2019m ready to believe it.\u201d It\u2019s hard to picture a TV journalist making such a statement today\u2014or is it?<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re joined now in studio by Jeff Cohen; he\u2019s associate professor of journalism and director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College. He\u2019s also co-founder of the group <a href=\"http:\/\/rootsaction.org\/\">Roots Action<\/a>, author of <i>Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media,<\/i> and the founder of FAIR. Welcome back to <b>CounterSpin<\/b>, Jeff Cohen.<\/p>\n<p><b>Jeff Cohen:<\/b> Great to be with you.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Well, it\u2019s strange times to be a media critic. For years, being a leftist media critic meant pointing to the structural biases of ownership and sponsorship of media, and then to the kind of institutional biases of the hangover of McCarthyism, and just the sexism and racism that all US institutions are part of to some degree, but with journalism then having that sort of patina of objectivity. But now we\u2019re in this &#8220;all hands on deck against Trump&#8221; mode, it seems like if you criticize the<b> New York Times,<\/b> you\u2019re seen as counter-revolutionary?<\/p>\n<p><b>JC:<\/b>&gt; Even more so if you criticize <b>MSNBC<\/b> or <b>CNN<\/b>, you\u2019re seen as somehow disloyal to the cause of deposing Trump.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> So start with <b>MSNBC,<\/b> where you once worked, and which I think many people still think of as kind of a counterpart, or opposite number, to <b>Fox<\/b>. What\u2019s going on there?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8925771\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8925771 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Screen-Shot-2018-04-05-at-1.54.08-PM-300x166.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"166\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Chris Hayes interviewing Gen. Barry McCaffrey on <strong>MSNBC<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>JC:<\/b> I wish. It is not the left-wing version of the right-wing <b>Fox<\/b>. I was watching <b>Fox<\/b> all the last few days, and when they attack Trump, it\u2019s always from the right. It\u2019s always from the grassroots. It\u2019s always: \u201cHe\u2019s not right-wing enough. He\u2019s not conservative enough. He sold us out on this or that.\u201d I mean, generally they\u2019re pro-Trump.<\/p>\n<p>On <b>MSNBC<\/b>, on the other hand, and you could see it throughout 2015 and 2016, if anything, in the battle between Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they tilted toward Hillary Clinton. They\u2019re more with the corporate hawk wing of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>So, Janine, to get to your specific point about today: If you watch <b>MSNBC<\/b>, the people that are put forward as their experts, the saviors, the people that are going to save us from Trump, are in many ways a collection of war hawks, spooks, spies, dishonest people who progressives have traditionally attacked.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, our heroes are supposed to be Mueller and Comey, who headed the FBI when many progressive groups were surveilled. We know that, what happened under their reign. For years and years, those two headed the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>If you watch <b>MSNBC<\/b>, you see people like Chris Hayes interviewing people like Barry McCaffrey, because McCaffrey\u2019s anti-Trump. And by the way, I saw Chris Hayes<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3WpD8EVg4cg&amp;feature=youtu.be\"> interviewing<\/a> Barry McCaffrey on the week that we marked the 15th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. If there was a voice on television that was more pro\u2013\u201clet\u2019s invade Iraq, let\u2019s invade them tomorrow,\u201d it was Gen. Barry McCaffrey on <b>NBC<\/b> and <b>MSNBC<\/b>. So I\u2019m hoping, when I see, \u201cWow. McCaffrey\u2019s on with Chris Hayes,\u201d that maybe Chris Hayes is going to ask him to explain how he was so wrong about the need to invade Iraq, and does he feel he owes an apology? Instead, because McCaffrey\u2019s critical of Trump, I guess McCaffrey\u2019s now our hero.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8925784\" style=\"width: 312px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8925784 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Jeff-Cohen-Labor-Portrait.png\" alt=\"Jeff Cohen of Park Center for Independent Media\" width=\"302\" height=\"378\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Jeff Cohen: &#8220;This collection of perjurers and war criminals, because they\u2019re critical of Trump, they\u2019re put forward on <b>MSNBC<\/b> and <b>CNN<\/b>&#8230;as some sort of heroes that are going to save the republic, save progressives, save democracy.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>So you could go one by one from <b>MSNBC<\/b> to <b>CNN,<\/b> where they have Mr. Clapper\u2014James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, he went before the US Senate and he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2018\/01\/19\/james-clappers-perjury-dc-made-men-dont-get-charged-lying-congress-jonathan-turley-column\/1045991001\/\">perjured<\/a> himself and said the NSA is engaging in no bulk surveillance\u2014he\u2019s the hero on <b>CNN<\/b>. So you find this collection of perjurers and war criminals, because they\u2019re critical of Trump, they\u2019re put forward on <b>MSNBC<\/b> and <b>CNN<\/b>\u2014and remember, those are supposed to be the liberal cable news channels\u2014they\u2019re put forward as some sort of heroes that are going to save the republic, save progressives, save democracy. I just don\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n<p>And it shows, I think, the limits. You brought up the ownership. It shows the limits of TV news channels owned by <b>Comcast<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, in the case of <\/span><b>MSNBC,<\/b> where they almost never bring up <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/net-neutrality-reduced-to-mogul-vs-mogul-in-corporate-medias-shallow-coverage\/\">net neutrality<\/a>, the saving of which is probably the main First Amendment issue facing our country and progressives, and then <b>CNN,<\/b> owned by <b>Time Warner<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> It\u2019s so disheartening, this idea that the enemy of your enemy must be your friend, that we can\u2019t be any more politically complicated than that. And then also, just that the best source is always going to be the guy with medals and gray hair, even if he\u2019s the same person that lied to your face years before. That somehow, as a source or as an expert, there\u2019s no one who deserves that spot more than they do.<\/p>\n<p><b>JC:<\/b> It\u2019s a closed system. It\u2019s a narrow system. What FAIR has talked about for decades is, we have a corporate spectrum: It goes from General Electric to General Motors. It goes from hawk to dove, but the doves are hawks, and the hawks are super-hawks. So you have this narrow spectrum, and if you don\u2019t fit in to that narrow spectrum, you don\u2019t get heard.<\/p>\n<p>And as you say, there are many effective critics of Trump, many people who could make a strong argument about why he should be impeached. Believe me, the strongest argument about why he should be impeached has got nothing to do with Russia. I\u2019m part of a group,<a href=\"http:\/\/rootsaction.org\/\"> RootsAction.org<\/a>, and we started an impeachment campaign against Trump on day one of his administration, and it was about corporate conflicts of interest. He refused to divest himself from his sprawling business interests\u2014unlike Jimmy Carter, who divested from his peanut farm when he became the president in the 1970s\u2014and it\u2019s a clear violation of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution. If you want a progressive critique of Donald Trump and why he should be deposed, you\u2019ve got to go to independent media. The corporate media, <b>MSNBC<\/b> and <b>CNN<\/b>, will just give you the same parade.<\/p>\n<p>I was in cable news, as you know. I wrote the book <i>Cable News Confidential<\/i> about my years there. And I was there at the beginning of the &#8220;War on Terror,&#8221; and there was this parade of all these war hawks telling us why we needed to invade this country or that, how successful it was going to be&#8230;and everything they said turned out to be nonsense. And those people are back on the air.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Any final thoughts while we have you here?<\/p>\n<p><b>JC:<\/b> You may think that James Clapper, formerly head of intelligence, and Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_E._McLaughlin\">McLaughlin<\/a>, and Brennan\u2014these former, vile CIA chiefs\u2014that they\u2019re your allies. They are not your allies. These corporate media conglomerates need to be battled by progressives. The military-industrial surveillance complex needs to be battled by progressives. They\u2019re not our allies if we want a more just society.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> We\u2019ve been speaking with FAIR\u2019s founder, Jeff Cohen.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/the-doves-are-hawks-and-the-hawks-are-super-hawks\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Janine Jackson interviewed Jeff Cohen about cable news hawks for the March 10, 2018, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Play Stop pop out X MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_1 = [ { name: &#8220;1. 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