Letters to the Editor
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No Such Mechanisms Exist???
If I've understood the PR Watch piece to which you've linked, no enforcement mechanism exists to prevent/punish this type of illegality (short of Congress acting, which strikes me as terribly inefficient).
Given this, it is even less surprising that the media isn't reacting - not only shouldn't we expect them to police themselves, but the prohibition against illegal propaganda hasn't been deemed serious enough to warrant any enforcement mechanism at all.
In one sense, isn't this all we need to know? Or put another way, isn't the lack of enforcement mechanism the *real* scandal?
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You don't believe in the constitution? [Laughter]
Reading a transcript from the PRWatch link that Paul Dirks posted (http://www.prwatch.org/node/7261), it's impressive to witness the spirit of collaboration between the "independent military analysts" and Donald Rumsfeld. It's not just that they are being given talking points, they're fully team members helping to craft the message that will be force multiplied. But my favourite passage was this one, where someone accidentally farts in the elevator:
QUESTION: I’m an old intel guy and I can sum all of this up, unfortunately, with one word. That is PsyOps. Now most people may hear that and they think oh my God, they’re trying to brainwash—
SECRETARY RUMSFELD: What are you, some kind of nut? You don’t believe in the constitution? [Laughter]
Everyone is a team player, and all but one are in on the unspoken understanding of the wrongness of what they're doing, morally and legally. I just wish the transcript writer had qualified the laughter. Was it nervous or over compensating?
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Mr. Greenwald,
First, please forgive me for having spelled your name incorrectly, twice. Mere typos.
Your pursuit of the lying media is great to see. The conclusion that must be drawn is that avoidance of issues is the primary way in which the MSM evades dealing with unpleasant reality. The silence on the issue of their complicity in dispensing propaganda is deafening. Likewise with the issue of 9/11.
The fact that they can not address the inconsistencies in the official story in a factual way continues to indicate that they are unable to do so. One quick fact. The collapse of WTC 7 has still not been officially explained. It is almost 7 years after the fact. How long does it take to finalize a report on the cause of the collapse of a building?
Wait, a written report would be subject to logic, and scrutiny. Better to just delay the report, and keep calling your opponents crazy. Cheers.
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It would be interesting to know...
At what time of day was Shepperd's CNN interview broadcast from Guantanamo Bay? If the "journalists" only had 3 1/2 hours for the tour, when did Shepperd have time for the broadcast? Such "live" interviews do not happen on the spur of the moment. Even if the video crew is setting up independently of the on-air talent, there is still at least 10 minutes or so of fussing to be done once the star arrives. Had Shepperd even seen the interrogations he was gushing about?
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@Glenn
Emptywheel had a decent rundown in a post at FDL a few weeks ago, (not by EW but on that blog):
The Pentagon’s Media Analyst Domestic Psy-Ops Program: Is It Legal?
By: bmaz Sunday April 20, 2008 12:52 pm
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/04/20/the-pentagons-media-analyst-domestic-psy-ops-program-is-it-legal/
Matt Armstrong at MountainRunner
http://mountainrunner.us/public-affairs/
Perhaps a contrarian view there but he is one of the few people around with a Masters in Public Diplomacy.
If I put on my Propagandist for Profit hat I would simply tell you that this is not domestic propaganda. It is simply an infomercial for a war. Don't you believe in the free market?
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Another example of Pentagon Spin
The LA Times has a terrific blog space called Babylon & Beyond. This http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/05/iraq-the-elusiv.html#more
links to an entry about that elusive cache of Iranian weapons that the Pentagon claims established the link between Muquada el Sadr's militia and Iran.
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to: Mr. Sulzer
I agree with everything you said, however, this is a matter of substance over form.
Certainly, not every American gets their news from the MSM. The MSM is not nominally one monolithic entity. However, enough do that by carefully controlling the line transmitted by ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, NYT, etc., they can garner *enough* support (or deter enough dissent) to do exactly what they want to do.
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Contact CNN?
Jesus Glenn, 8000 pages.
OK, what's the best course of action? Flood CNN with angry email?
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@David Larry D
I agree, but it is necessary to understand the mechanics of the method of control in order to have any chance of finding a solution to the problem.
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Five and a half days!
You really read all of this? At one page a minute, 8000 pages is five and a half days of reading with no breaks.
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@ Cocktailhag
One would think they were concealing their roles out of embarrassment, if one were inclined to be charitable. But I think it's more accurate to say that they have sampled the prerogatives of power, including the power to deceive, and like it.
They join Dick Cheney in saying, "So?"
No need to be charitable with the deceivers. I will never forget the day my husband, who lived under the thumb of Soviet influence in the former Czechoslovakia, happened to pass through the room while one of these "military analysts" was on t.v. He stated that it was no different than the propaganda he'd lived with and that Americans were being sucked in because many of us falsely believed our government to be "above" such base actions.
I agreed with him then, and I agree with you and Glenn now. Glenn's focus on this issue is critical. Equally important are our roles. We need to be the "force multipliers" for the truth.
Every time one of these liars says, "So?", they need to be hammered by the weight of the vox populi.
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Not the Soviet Union, exactly
Perhaps I tend toward this source of analogies too often, but this absurdly staged tour of Gitmo immediately reminded me of this:
On June 23, 1944, the Nazis permitted the visit by the Red Cross in order to dispel rumors about the extermination camps. The commission included E. Juel-Henningsen, the head physician at the Danish Ministry of Health, and Franz Hvass, the top civil servant at the Danish Foreign Ministry. Dr. Paul Eppstein was instructed by the SS to appear in the role of the mayor of Theresienstadt.
To minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt, the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz. Also deported in these actions were most of the Czechoslovakian workers assigned to 'Operation Embellishment.' They also erected fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort. The Danes whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, not more than three in a room. The guests enjoyed the performance of a children's opera, Brundibar, which was written by inmate Hans Krása.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camp
On the other hand, the analogy is less than perfect. The 1944 Red Cross could perhaps be seen as innocent of the crimes their reporting failed to uncover.