Courtesy of Pam Martens
Paul Craig Roberts
Last week the Press Club of Mexico honored Paul Craig Roberts with the International Award for Excellence in Journalism. Roberts used the occasion to call out a tainted brand of journalism in this country which frequently involves “lying for the government and for the corporations.”
Roberts is one of the most prolific writers in America and a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. His journalism career includes Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal, columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service and Creators Syndicate. Roberts has also been one of the most strident critics of both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, calling them “vassals” of the corporate titans. Increasingly, Roberts sees the corporate media as a twin evil to Washington, writing recently that “the so-called ‘mainstream media’ has been transformed into a Ministry of Propaganda.”
Roberts’ speech at the Mexico press awards gathering on March 12 was quintessential Roberts. Roberts told the crowd that “In the United States real journalists are scarce and are becoming more scarce. Journalists have morphed into a new creature. Gerald Celente calls US journalists ‘presstitutes,’ a word formed from press prostitute.”
Roberts said that “the few real journalists that remain are resigning” and cited the case of Sharyl Attkisson, a veteran investigative reporter for CBS who resigned and wrote the book, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington. Roberts said Attkisson felt CBS saw its role as a “protector of the powerful, not a critic.”
Roberts also talked about the recent departure of Peter Oborne, the UK Telegraph’s former Chief Political Commentator who resigned and called the newspaper’s coverage of the powerful bank, HSBC, a “fraud on its readers.” Oborne provided the full background on his resignation to OpenDemocracy, writing:
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