Letters to the Editor
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How the system works
I think the easiest way to understand the inner circle of the Bush criminal organization and the Washington Press Corps that enables it is in terms of psychology. Two factors are at play: operant conditioning and ego structure.
The Bush criminal organization depends for its survival on the acquiescence, deference, and endorsement of its schemes by the mass communications media. Much like the Mafia of old, a network of corruption among law enforcement, news organizations, the judiciary, and also a sufficient part of the general public are all necessary for the gang to succeed in its various crimes. The news media are the glue that hold it all together. Thus we now have the term "embedded," which has taken on a meaning far beyond its original intended use to mean a press that is connected, as if by an umbilical cord, to the bestower of carefully crafted messages, commonly known as "spin."
The members of the embedded Washington Press Corps are beholden to the bestowers of information for their place in the professional and social matrix of their "karass," as Kurt Vonnegut would say - their effective human atmosphere. The egos of the press corps are fed by their ability to be on TV, to have space on newspapers and websites, and to be invited to parties and other social functions in the District of Columbia. They are conditioned to say what is acceptable to both the government officials who feed them their lines and to their employers, the corporate news and entertainment heavyweights - The New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN. The newspapers of other major American cities are also part of the Washington Press Corps, but not as significantly as the largest players, and they behave similarly.
Now the game has gotten very interesting. Nothing the Bush crime family is doing is working, its crimes are plain for all to see, and the press corps is caught in a vise between enabling the BCF and the pressure of disenabling information coming from other sources. Thanks to the Internet, and in no small part to Salon and Joe Conason, the Washington Press Corps is finding its reinforcement system weakening, and its credibility declining. Even the corporate managers of the major media have to be feeling the pinch. Declining credibility leads to declining viewership, listenership, and readership. Being on radio, TV, and in the newspaper don't mean as much when fewer people are paying attention.
What is encouraging is that there is enough of an opening now that the criminality of the Bush regime is now likely to lead to impeachment. I hope Bush holds out to the bitter end. If that happens, the likelihood of his imprisonment is greater. If all goes well, maybe some of his enablers in the Washington Press Corps will join him. We should hold them responsible. Many have died because of their complicity.