September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

President Bush’s courtship of the media did not stop with pre-election promises.
Subsequent actions directly provided billions of dollars of benefits at the expense of the
taxpayers:
“Six days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Bush FCC appointee Michael
Powell (son of Colin Powell) announced a ruling that affected corporations having licenses to operate
130 UHF TV stations broadcasting on certain frequencies. The FCC gave the media companies
approval to sell those taxpayer-owned licenses and keep the tens of billions of dollars that will be
generated by the sales.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn Kay, October
23, 2001]
One-at-a-time, the dynamics of influence and fear were experienced in the American
media:
NBC
With General Electric being almost as large of a news organization as the next four
largest combined, the role of its CEO Jack Welch is extremely insightful.
“The crucial step that Welch took was to make it well known throughout NBC News that the standard
for the promotion of journalists would be the same as it was for every other employee in the
corporation: outstanding contribution to the financial well being of General Electric. The journalists
who had their paychecks signed by Welch knew that favorable coverage of George W. Bush would be
considered an outstanding contribution to the financial well being of General Electric….Welch’s
successful behind-the-scenes campaign to influence media coverage in a way that would get Bush into
the White House has not been visible to the public, with one exception. On election night, according to
an eyewitness, Welch was so angry that his own NBC News team would not call the race for Bush that
he personally went to the studio from which Tom Brokaw was anchoring the coverage. Welch quietly
watched the broadcast for a few minutes. Two people who were present claim that, when Brokaw and
Tim Russert did not take the hint that their boss had come into the newsroom because he wanted
something from them, he explicitly announced that he wanted them to call the election for Bush. They
did. As a result, Bush entered the Florida recount phase with the tremendous advantage of having
already been declared the winner.” [Democracy, General Electric Style, David Podvin and Carolyn
Kay, October 23, 2001]
From additonal sources:
“During a March 12 interview with C-SPAN president and chief executive officer Brian Lamb,
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann said: "There are people I know in the hierarchy of NBC, the company,
and GE [General Electric Co., NBC's parent corporation], the company, who do not like to see the
current presidential administration criticized at all. ... There are people who I work for who would
prefer, who would sleep much easier at night if this never happened." [Olbermann: There are execs at
NBC "who do not like to see the current presidential administration criticized at all, Mar 13, 2006,
http://mediamatters.org/items/200603130006]
“CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin said Thursday she was referring to her time spent at MSNBC when
she said she felt pressure not to report stories critical of the Bush administration during the time
leading up to the Iraq war…. During her CNN appearance, Yellin said the press corps was under
enormous pressure from corporate executives to make sure the war was presented "in a way that was
consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings….The charges
against MSNBC aren't new, however. A prime-time show with Phil Donahue received consistent
pressure to present panels tilted in favor of the war, said Jeff Cohen, that program's former senior
producer. Donahue's show was on for less than a year before being cancelled less than a month before
THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 333