Yellin + McClellan

On the heels of Scott McClellan's dish regarding the Bush White House, CCN's Jessica Yellin -- formerly of ABC News -- had this to add:

The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings ...
And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives--and I was not at this network at the time--but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time....

Yellin plus McClellan gives us a dissembling President and a press cowed by a war crazed public pumped up on fear and uber patriotism.

You know, I do not blame the Bush Administration. I really don't. The Republic will always be victimized by men of misguided intentions, hubris, ambition or some other horrible. My anger is reserved for the rest of us, the educated, the church going, the law abiding, the collective People Who Should Know Better. We are the one who went along with the plan, who did not make waves and at time concocted ridiculous justifications for our government's actions. It was us -- really -- who lost our senses, lost our ability to morally reason, who sat down when we should have stood up.