It was 2008 and Amy Goodman was on the road hawking another clip-job she'd written with her brother, one that called on people to "challenge the corporate media" (Standing Up To The Madness, page 219). She was on the road hawking her wares and promoting the documentary Independent Media In A Time Of War.
NEWS CLIP: I'm back with two of our military analysts who've been with us this morning who are helping us understand this war.
AMY GOODMAN: We now have people like Wesley Clarke, General Wesley Clarke on the payroll of CNN who is questioning their embedded reporter on the front line. He is questioning the reporter and the reporter is saying "Yes sir, No Sir".
NEWS CLIP: This is a very special moment in time for the men and families and for this country. It is often fascinating for me. General Clarke and I have spent a good amount of time together today and over the week.
AMY GOODMAN: This is journalism in America today. They have redefined general news and we have got to challenge that.
Amy Goodman was calling out reporters saying "yes, sir" and "no, sir."
Yet for two weeks she hasn't called out the pillow talk between Gina Chon and Brett McGurk.
Two weeks ago, the story emerged of their affair. Gina Chon's been rightly fired from The Wall Street Journal.
If the scandal had come out in 2008, Amy Goodman and everyone would have been screaming their heads off. But the Bush official that Gina Chon was f**king? He's Barack Obama's new nominee to be US Ambassador to Iraq.
So they don't say a word. Or worse, like Erika Fry, they insist that McGurk and Chon got married (she leaves out "after they divorced their spouses") so suddenly it doesn't matter.
Really?
It doesn't matter that a reporter slept with a government official and allowed him vet her copy? It doesn't matter?
What happened to ethics?
What happened to avoiding the appearance of conflict?
What happened to the establishment left?
It apparently is gasping its last breath.
The little whores of Panhandle Media better grasp real damn quick that the real left is watching and seeing how they whore. So when they want to scream about conflict interest in the future, everyone's going to remember when a corporate media reporter slept with a government official, slanted her coverage and let him vet her copy and Panhandle Media didn't even say "boo." It will not be forgotten. You have destroyed whatever was left of your credibility.
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Illustration is Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Gentlemen's Club for Journalism."