Michael to LameMan:

Are you going to be posting this same comment over and over until September? Perhaps you are one of the reasons Mr. Allen "is so interested and enthusiastic about the communication strategy of the administration."

-- Michael Harold

You probably won't see LameMan admit to this, Michael, but he is making dry humor. You should have read William T's Post a few back about humor.

I planned to wash my car today, but I think I'll wait till General Patreous comes out with his September Report.

I can't help but notice that you started posting July 10, and all but your first two comments seem to make the same point, nearly verbatim, regardless of the topic:

You raise some interesting points

Mr. Greenwald, but really, we shouldn't judge this until Gen. Petraeus gives his report in September.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Permalink Thursday, July 19, 2007 07:42 AM

You raise some interesting points

Mr Greenwald, but really I don't think we should judge these things until Gen. Petraeus delivers his report in September.

Permalink Friday, July 20, 2007 12:20 PM

You raise some interesting points

Mr Greenwald, but really I don't think we should judge these things until Gen. Petraeus delivers his report in September.

Permalink Tuesday, July 31, 2007 08:59 AM

You raise some interesting points

Mr Powell (at 9:09 AM), but really I don't think we should judge these things until Gen. Petraeus delivers his report in September.

Permalink Tuesday, July 31, 2007 10:15 AM

You raise some interesting points

Mr Greenwald, but really I don't think we should judge these things until Gen. Petraeus delivers his report in September.

Permalink Wednesday, August 1, 2007 07:41 AM

A basic question for your panel discussion

Mr. Allen, why are you so interested and enthusiastic about the communications strategy of the administration? How does this affect your work in informing your readers/viewers?

And as always - you raise some interesting points, Mr. Greenwald, but really I don't think we should judge these things until Gen. Petraeus delivers his report in September.

Permalink Friday, August 3, 2007 06:07 AM

Are you going to be posting this same comment over and over until September? Perhaps you are one of the reasons Mr. Allen "is so interested and enthusiastic about the communication strategy of the administration."

It is difficult to know where "Parroting" ends, and conspiracy to willfully promote propaganda begins.

-- casual_observer

I don't recall which book it was in, maybe Necessary Illusions, but Noam once quipped that (obviously I'm trying to quote from memory here) 'It's difficult to make the case that the news media are victims of manipulation, when the victims prove so eager for the experience.'

Lame Man

"...but really I don't think we should judge these things until Gen. Petraeus delivers his report in September."

...I find this every bit as amusing now as I did the first time you wrote it.

-- GlennGreenwald

It's so funny because it isn't the least bit of an exaggeration. The beltway media ++ is as airheaded as the bubble gum chewing Britney Spears appeared to be in her infamous comment, "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens."

It is difficult to know where "Parroting" ends, and conspiracy to willfully promote propaganda begins.

A Parrot's only agenda is to get the cracker--which in press terms means access, professional advancement, standing, and the like. Or that's my understanding.

But a conspirator is a different critter. Yes, the advancement goal is still there (I suppose similar to the advancement a whore might realize), but a media conspirator is also willfully misleading the viewer/reader in order to create political, governmental, or public change/advancement. The conspirator is a willing participant in deception, the parrot not so much.

Just as we are seeing a disturbing wave of private mercenaries like Blackwater receive huge contracts for security-work from Iraq to post-Katrina New Orleans, what kinds of mercenary work is taking place in the military PR area, and in the press proper. The significance of outsourcing of this kind is that the 'mercenaries' escape much of the oversight and legal containment that US forces and government employees would. So a PR consulting firm working for the Army, for example, might have all kinds of latitude that the Army itself doesn't have.

A year ago the above would seem paranoid to me. But there is now more than ample evidence coming out of Waxman's and Leahy's hearings that politicization--and I mean criminal politicization--is rampant to a truly alarming degree. Arguably, politication would be most toxic in two Departments: DOJ and DOD.

The after effects of the Cold War are still with us. Every day it seems more apparent that movement conservatives have become what they most hated: Stalinists (albeit a paler version).

One needs to look no farther than to the electoral strategies of Karl Rove and the media strategies of Steve Schmidt. You don't defeat our opponents, you crush them (see the Siegelman case in Alabama) and with public relations you create your own reality (see Tony Snow, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc.).

That a prominent "journalist" with a national audience like Mike Allen stands in awe of Republican message control is evidence of the ongoing erosion of Enlightenment values (objective truth, verifiable reality, etc.) in the American public sphere. It also suggests that there is nothing inherently guaranteed in the Constitution. We must constantly and actively defend our own rights.

There is no sound so sublime as the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of liberal teeth. The cacophony of collective moaning by people dependent on bad news for validation, is wonderful. Thanks.

Well, that's some special reading for you. I sure hope you don't have this much trouble comprehending street signs!

Shooter, we're all bemoaning the overt participation by the military in "dog-and-pony shows" for the press in Iraq, designed to leave the flawed impression that Iraq is going well. As a supporter of the war, Shooter, you of all people should be interested in the unvarnished truth. But instead, you and your dead-end 30%ers would rather flatly ignore the continuing assessments of our military leaders as they describe the lack of political process and other enormous hurdles to Iraq success, and focus instead on this made-for-TV movie filmed in Iraq. And you even sound proud of your ability to focus on what is clearly bullshit, and claim it as truth, as if this were the winning move in a game among children. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.