As a result of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s charges that the Bush Administration’s intentionally deceived US citizens leading up to the war in Iraq, journalists are speaking out about the top-down pressure they experienced to promote the war.
Jessica Yellin, a CNN journalist, admitted this week to being pressured by corporate executives at her previous network to support the Iraq War. In a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, Yellin discussed how she and other members of the press corps were “under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president’s high approval ratings.”
In a recent Today Show interview, Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Charles Gibson also noted pressure from the Bush administration to support the war, reports MSNBC. Couric recalled a threat from the White House Press Secretary to “block access to [the network] during the war” if she did not change the tone of her interviewing style.
