Helen Thomas, the extraordinary 89 year old American reporter, whose coverage of US Presidential politics spans five decades, was interviewed a couple of years ago about the quality of the White House press corps in the Bush era.

Her account is damning. Although Helen Thomas didn’t spell it out, the conclusion is inescapable that there was a large measure of collusion in the way the press corp pursed a common agenda.

Helen Thomas

Who decided, from the time Bush arrived in the White House, to hype up the ‘threat’ posed by Iraq? That kind of convergent bias doesn’t happen by accident.

The Bush Administration itself played ball, but virtually no-one in the press corps asked Bush and Cheney hard questions about 9-11, the ‘Patriot Act’, the Anthrax attack, the War on Terror, Afghanistan, Iraq… and Israel.

From 2001 until Bush was elected for a second term, the Bush Administration and US mass media engaged in an orgy of mutual admiration, all directed towards a massive expansion of America’s military and ’security’ budget, the launch of new illegal wars to serve Israel’s agenda that helped bankrupt America, the establishment of police state machinery with the USA and the drastic curtailment of Americans’ civil liberties.

This is what Helen had to say:

Hat-tip to HomePageDaily where I spotted this video, It’s a fine online news service by the Australia’s one and only Richard Neville that goes beyond the enervating mainstream consensus.