No, Hubris; they aint shitting us.
It's an agit-prop ops that would give Joseph Goebbels a hard-on that a cat couldn't scratch.
And, with a little determination by Obama, it will make it off the blog sites and into the general, as a campaign issue.
There IS a limit to how close Americans are willing to see the ship of state sailed to "Big Brother Reef". I'm optimistic enough to think we have reached it, or are very close to reaching it. Time will tell.
These are the people who brought us "disinformation." Nothing surprises me about them any more.
Looks like the Military learned at least one lesson from Vietnam ...
Control the message and you control the media.
Do the math: That's 4,500 in 5 years, or 900 per year which works out to about three per day, split up among how many network/cable stations?
I suggest that 97-pound Goebbels would be kicking sand into the face of our dear Dick "Go Fuck Yourself" Cheney for being so lackadaisical in getting the message across.
It might be time to examine the issue of broadcast licenses, since TV is supposedly a public service, not a governmental propaganda machine.
No WONDER the media refused to conduct and publish any follow-up stories on this point. To paraphrase Gary Trudeau (34 years ago), they are "guilty, guilty, guilty!"
brat - So where were you when Michael Powell was appt'd head of the FCC?
common we where tld about this years ago, steve talked about it a few times.
what did you think caltapulting hte propaganda was all about.
Well, yes.... we all KNEW this was happening right before our very eyes but to see it lined out like this is rather breathtaking. I liked media matters' spread sheet detail of their appearances. I don't read media matter much because of their alignment with the one candidate but on this..... great work on this one!
The article was April 20 and isn't that time the media became soooooo focused on the red herring revi wright? Hmmmmmmm.
Who's to hold them accountable for this?
Propaganda-pushers can be tried for war crimes, am I right? Because I think it would be absolutely awesome to get a few hundred media whores thrown in prison for a few decades for helping to push an illegal war...
Thorough mofo's.
The nefarious influence of media goes back a lot farther than imbedded reporters in Iraq, or even than the ugliness of Reagan's "Operation Truth" in the 1980's.
Remember what Hearst said to his reporter in the 1890's ... "you provide the pictures, & I'll provide the war" ... or that Napoleon stated that he feared 3 newspapers more than 20,000 bayonets.
Wise pols, like Reagan (who himself was a celebrity shill for GE before he was California's governor), court the media - foolhardy ones, like Nixon, fight it, & when they do they usually lose. When Bill Clinton began bitterly excoriating the media publicly, he signed his political death-warrant. Notice how gentle, vague & flat current pols' critiques of the MSM sound? That's because they know how quickly they could become their next target.
Until enough of us tune out to hit them where it hurts, no amount of outrage or condemnation is going to make a serious difference - in fact, they happily court outrage & controversy (see Stephanopolous' description of the ABC Debate as a "success") as a benchmark of "relevance" & to suck in audiences curious to see what insane narrative they'll be peddling next - they won't stop until the ratings drop.
Where's Howard Beale when you need him?
It never took much to exploit lazy and desperate MSM news bookers. The criteria for clipping a mic on a war shill have always been simple and narrow: an honorable discharge from field-grade or higher rank; a suit with a lapel pin; a short haircut (bonus for buzz cut or gray hair); the ability to look all serious and thoughtful while spouting empty broadcast-friendly soundbites; and an utter unwillingness to question a GOP CinC's strategic decisions.
Discloure and transparency and detailed analysis and actually checking the goddamned facts? That's for "irresponsible bloggers."
In this case, the only difference between BushCo and Stalin is that an American officer has to wait until he's retired before gaining the privileges of the zampolit.
to help chill your angry inner radical i recommend this ice cream
The Soviets at their best had nothing on the Bush/Cheney gang when it comes to official spin manipulation. Pravda-style propagandizing was fairly ham-handed, and most Soviets knew how to read between the lines. The Shrubya Administration and their enabling CHM (h/t IBW) aren't exactly subtle, but they do a much better job of making it slick by means of their mad Madison Avenue and PR skills.
"Do the math: That's 4,500 in 5 years, or 900 per year which works out to about three per day"
that is A LOT, constant, relentless for 5 years... and we wonder why people seemed brainwashed to support this stupid, tragic, disaster of military and foreign policy.
3 words.
wag.the.dog
Both funny & more or less on-topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z...h?
v=zV5UTHRx0a4
Why is it that whenever I read stories like this I get that Peter Sellers-as-Strangelovian urge to click my heels, throw my right arm up & out at a 45 degree angle and shout "Seig Heil"????
And this is surprising, how?
Maybe it just comes from growing up during the Vietnam era, but I've always assumed the government lies and the Pentagon lies, and the media are their willing accomplices.
And I've yet to be proven wrong. Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Gulf War I, Kosovo, Gulf War II: Every single military action this country has embarked on during my lifetime has been sold by the same savage mendacity.
It makes a particularly sick joke out of the notion that all this needless death and destruction is somehow protecting our "freedom". It's fucking "militainment", just another variation on all the other ugly spectacles of waste that distract us while our pockets are picked.
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