| In the wake
of a firestorm on the House floor over a Newsweek
article about desecrating the Quran, a dozen members
of Congress have planned a forum next Tuesday on media
bias, RAW STORY has
learned.
Among those scheduled to testify are Air
America Radio host Al Franken, Media Matters chief David
Brock, AmericaBLOG's John Aravosis, a Washington bureau
BBC reporter, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's Steve
Rendell and Mark Lloyd, from the progressive thinktank
Center for American Progress. Wonkette's Ana Marie Cox
has also been invited.
The panel will be hosted by ranking House
Judiciary Committee Democrat Rep. John Conyers, Jr (D-MI).
“I think a number of Democratic
members have been disturbed about what is and what isn’t
being covered in the corporate news media," a House
aide said, speaking of the event. "Specifically,
there’s been a great deal of disappointment of
the media’s coverage of the Iraq war and the Downing
Street memo and great concern about the White House’s
efforts to intimidate media outlets such as they’ve
done in the Newsweek matter.”
House Republicans have aggressively attacked Newsweek
for an article later retracted that said an internal
U.S. military report would find that the Quran had been
flushed down a toilet at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) appeared on Fox News Channel
Wednesday to discuss the negative international reaction,
which many say was as a result of the Newsweek
article, despite comments from the Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of staff indicating otherwise. Pryce has called
for all Congressional offices to cancel their Newsweek
subscriptions "as a call for a return to journalistic
integrity and credibility."
A Newsweek asserted last week
that the White House has capitalized on distrust of
the media to turn errors into conflagrations.
"Unfortunately, a lot of news organizations
are making mistakes that turn into massive news stories,"
the staffer said. "And that is in part because
the Administration is very saavy at using public distrust
of the media to its advantage."
More details are expected shortly. Among
some of the members sponsoring and likely to attend
include Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), Rep. Sheila
Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep.
Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Correction:
In the first edition of this article, Sheila Jackson-Lee
was incorrectly identified as a Republican. She is a
Democrat.
Article originally published May 19, 2005. |
