Bruce Springsteen says the Press Has "Let the Country Down" -- You tell 'em Boss

By Greg Mitchell
Editor & Publisher

Monday 27 September 2004

New York - On the eve of the Vote for Change tour, which has sparked controversy in newsrooms where reporters have been ordered not to attend the pro-Kerry fundraisers, Bruce Springsteen, one of the stars of the concerts, has a few words for the press.

In a wide ranging interview in the just-published Oct. 14 issue of Rolling Stone, Springsteen says, "The press has let the country down. It's taken a very amoral stand, in that essential issues are often portrayed as simply one side says this and the other side says that....The job of the press is to tell the truth without fear or favor. We have to get back to that standard."

Most of his criticism, however, is aimed at TV coverage, and he reveals that as "a dedicated" New York Times reader he has gained "enormous sustenance" from columnists Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman.

The problem, according to Springsteen, is that "Fox News and the Republican right have intimidated the press into an incredible self-consciousness about appearing objective and backed them into a corner of sorts where they have ceded some of their responsibility and righteous power." In this regard, he finds The Washington Post and The New York Times admitting mistakes in their initial reporting about Iraq "very revealing."

Overall, while there has been some great reporting in the press, it has fallen far short, Springsteen tells Rolling Stone founder Jann S. Wenner: "Real news is the news we need to protect our freedoms. You get tabloid news, you get blood-and-guts news, you get news shot through with a self-glorifying façade of patriotism, but people have to sift too much for the news that we need to protect our freedoms....The loss of some of the soberness and seriousness of those institutions has had a devastating effect upon people's ability to respond to the events of the day."

But Springsteen mainly aims barbs at cable news, mocking the "enormous amount of Fox impersonators among what you previously thought were relatively sane media outlets across the cable channels."

He also knocks the media for allowing the White House to get away with the "disgraceful" policy of refusing "to allow photographs of the flag-draped coffins of the returning dead."

Even the scripted political conventions deserved more coverage than they got, especially since they were often upstaged by reality TV shows. "No matter how staged they are," Springsteen says, "I think they're a little more important than people eating bugs," although he hastens to add, "If you want to watch people eating bugs, that's fine, I can understand that, too."

Bruce has the guts to say what many real American Patriots who decry the loss of an objective News Media in the United States have been saying for some time now, but without any hearing among our fellow citizens. Maybe his celebrity will permit the message to get out to the common man, if the Corporate Owned News Outlets don’t squelch the message first. If the Corporate Owned News Outlets don’t start doing their duty to adequately inform the American Public, we are going to have to have another American Revolution to take back our Nation, but this time an economic revolution instead of an armed one. We the People of United States of America OWN THE AIRWAVES. The Corporate Owned News Outlets are only granted a license to use those airwaves if they do so in the PUBLICS BEST INTEREST. Which they are not!!! If the FCC will not do its duty to enforce that, then we the people will have to organize boycotts of the advertisers of stations that will not do their job and report the truth to the people. Only when their bottom line is threatened will these Media Moguls sit up and listen to the people. We are the ones who buy the products that keep them on the air. Together we can force into bankruptcy any station, newspaper or network that will not do right by the American People!!!! Together we CAN TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY!!!