CNN’s Yellin: Network executives killed critical White House stories before Iraq war.

Yesterday, CNN’s Jessica Yellin, who previously covered the White House for ABC News, agreed with Scott McClellan’s assessment that the media were “too deferential to the White House” before the Iraq war. Yellin said news executives pushed her not to do hard-hitting pieces on the Bush administration:

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…to put on positive stories about the president.

Watch it:

“[T]hey would edit my pieces,” Yellin said. “They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive.” Glenn Greenwald has more.