liz_marcs | The We Love Propaganda Edition

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The We Love Propaganda Edition

I remember when NOW with Bill Moyers was a staple on PBS.

And now, it's b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ck! And Moyers once again proves why he's the God of Journalism on earth.

I missed the Friday broadcast of NOW, so I had to catch it on repeats on the Rhode Island PBS affiliate last night.

Of course, my blood pressure went right through the roof.

Buying the War, about the follow-the-heard mentality of the press that greased the skids into the U.S. invading and occupying Iraq, made me shake with rage.

Wanna know what's really sick? None of the information is new, nor is it a surprise at this point. Or, it shouldn't be if you've been paying even the smallest bit of attention.

It's seeing it laid out from one end to the other. It's seeing all the whining from the journalists about how "no one called them." (Fuck you, dude! You're supposed to call them, you idiots! — It's called Journalism 101! I had to do it back in the day. Do reporters not pick up the phones any more?) It's seeing the truth being reported in other countries, while pure propaganda was being spoon fed to the populace in ours. It's seeing those self-satisfied smirky talking heads not fucking getting it. They as "journalists" dropped the ball, and we managed to kill an entire country. Fantastic. Good job guys. I won't be forgiving you assholes any time soon.

I have herewith decided to pretend that my Journalism degree is a degree in Mid-19th Century American Literature. I don't want people to assume that I'm incompetent.

How is it possible that the last real reporters in the United States work for Knight Ridder/McClatchy Newspapers? As it turns out, this is the news organization that got it right all along and was calling shenanigans from the start.

But guess who's still got the big television contracts, still on the weenie cocktail circuit, and still making oodles of money for being wrong?

Here's a hint: It's not the ink-stained wretches at Knight Ridder/McClatchy who actually did their fucking jobs.

In other news, Riverbend of Baghdad Burning has finally thrown in the towel. She announced that she and her family were fleeing Baghdad for either Jordan or Syria (the only countries where Iraqis don't need passports to cross the border). From there, they're going to try to find a country that will take them in.

As conditions have deteriorated in Iraq, Riverbend's posting schedule has gotten increasingly erratic, with sometimes months going by between posts.

Another bright light goes out in Iraq, but at least Riverbend will live on.

I admit that I thought the Congressional hearings on the lies told around the fratricide death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan was over-the-top and conducted only because Tillman was famous. However, the House Hearing on Accuracy of Battlefield Information turned out to yield lots and lots of interesting information.

Like how U.S. troops were being used as propaganda parts by the Bush Administration to keep public opinion in line the Iraqi invasion and occupation. To be honest, again, this is not at all news, considering how King George so does love prancing in front of uniformed officers for political purposes. ("Mission Accomplished" anyone?)

By the way, this hearing included testimony from Jessica Lynch, in which she also accused the administration of lying about her situation. For the record, Lynch is accusing the administration of turning her into a hero for propaganda purposes — she denies that she's any kind of hero at all. IMHO, however, anyone who fights to set the record straight — as Lynch has tried to do for years — despite the pressure to keep her mouth shut and accept the hero accolade really is a hero. I'm just sayin'.

In either case, if you want to break your heart, this article on Pat Tillman from Sports Illustrated shows why so many people are fighting to get the truth out about Tillman, and to draw attention to the propaganda games around the Iraqi invasion and occupation.

More bits and pieces of flotsam:

George Tenet, who's not exactly one of the "good guys" when it comes to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, has released his tell-all book in which he's confirmed that the Iraqi invasion was based on a hill of lies. Again, not new news here at all, but notable for the "who" that's saying it.

Knight Ridder/McClatchy continue to prove how invaluable they are to journalism by reporting that in order to "prove" that violence in Iraq is decreasing, the administration has stopped counting car bombs as acts of violence. So next time your wingnut relatives tell you that Iraq is getting better, you might want to point out that the numbers are improving only because the Bush administration is congenitally incapable of telling the truth...or realizing that the American people actually have brains.

Anyway, I'll be posting some Bad Art Appreciation Day links up tonight. I got hung up doing a bunch of stuff yesterday and never got to my computer.

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f you want to break your heart, this article on Pat Tillman from Sports Illustrated

My older brother gets Sports Illustrated, and I read that article while visiting my parents. I meant just to give it a browse while on the john. I ended up sitting there with my butt getting cold and sore, and sobbing all over the magazine.

It certainly explains why so many people are fighting so hard to get the truth out about what happened.

What's fascinating about Tillman (and I admit that before the hearings I couldn't care less about Tillman) is that — when taken in conjunction with Lynch's case — it shows the lengths the administration was wiling to go to "manufacture" heroes to distract from the bad news that was already emerging from Iraq.

It's like a real-life version of Wag the Dog, only the people getting "smeared" with the hero label are actually good people in their own right, and that they or their survivors are horrified by what's been done.

It has also made me wonder - would they have gone to such lengths if the man hadn't already been a sports celebrity to begin with? Would they have gone through the effort of manufacturing such lies, if the dead had simply been Average Joe America not capable of attracting much media attention aside from being part of the daily tally?

That's the thing. I don't think they would've bothered lying about it if Tillman had been Average Joe America.

It's like the house cards that fell rested on the fact Tillman was a sports celebrity. It's like seeing the "butterfly over Tokyo effect" in action.

Tillman was the only one who was posthumously made into a media hero. But his parents weren't the only ones who were lied to about they way their child died. Read this:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_5721370

This whole administration seems to be addicted to lying.

It's like a real-life version of Wag the Dog,

Interesting that you mention that. Wag the Dog is based on American Hero (http://www.amazon.com/American-Hero-Larry-Beinhart/dp/0517153289/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2163740-7317514?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177691885&sr=8-1), which was a "fictionalized" account of the first Gulf War.

How often do you read a fictional story and wonder if it was really fictional or not?

On the slightly brighter side, Bill's guest tonight is none other than Jon Stewart. I'm going to a baseball game tonight, so it's time to fire up the TiVo!

Heee! Yes!

It looks like they've got several segments on NOW tonight.

*sigh* Whenever I'm about to forget how much I wuv Bill Moyers, something comes along to remind me why I do. The man is pure awesome.

I did manage to catch the Bill Moyers special, and it was, well, eye-opening. I knew most of what had gone on, but seeing it all put out there in one special was just... well, it was bad. I watched it with my parents, both of whom worked as journalists for UPI for a very long time, and they were... i guess irate is as close as I can come.

My mom actually met Landay when he was around my age and working for UPI in India, and she remembered him as being very bright, and wasn't surprised that he was one of the guys who actually dug in this. She was very impressed with him.

Anyway, thanks for bringing attention to this. It really is an excellent piece of work.

*cough*

I threw things at the television.

*cough*

What's really impressive about Moyers is that the man just doesn't let go. There he is all southern, gentlemanly charm and he'd be pushing...and pushing...and pushing while the smirk would waver just a little bit on the person he was questioning.

Although I admit that I really wanted to do violence to Peter Beinart from TNR guy and Timmeh Russert. You wanna talk about two people who do not get it.

Honestly, I'm surprised my post above isn't just a string of swears. I'm still pissed about episode, and I knew 90% of it already.

Still, I'm giddy that Bill Moyers is back on TV on a regular basis.

I watched it. And it was totally, absolutely devastating. Maybe this is the Cronkite moment we've needed.

I sure hope so...

I plan to watch NOW tonight, too.

A friend came back from Iraq and when someone mentioned Pat Tillman, he said, 'Oh, that f*cking idiot who couldn't follow orders and got himself killed?'

Whatever we are being told here, they are hearing different stories over there. I don't think he 'got himself killed,' but I do think that misinformation about the events have been deliberately spread, to keep the story under wraps.

A very common theme in this political climate is to spread two or more stories, and then point to the 'controversy' to explain why the truth is so hard to find.

Thank you for these links. I'm very relieved (and heartbroken) that Riverbend and her family are finally leaving.

The Tillman article hit me hard in a weird and peculiar place: the culture of the Rangers who trained AT Fort Lewis is so very different than the one of the unit transferred in from Georgia in the past year, who brought with them issues the old units tended to avoid (most particularly some racial violence in bars this side of the base).

Julia, it takes a long time to straighten out the damage that war does to military impact zones at home

Jessica Lynch's testimony was a main story in the news broadcasts an BBC, ITV, Channel 4, & Channel 5, at least, over here - was it not big news in the US then?

The news here mentioned that she was not bravely shooting until her last bullet, but that she said that she was 'cowering in the cab of her truck', and that in the Iraqi hospital as soon as the American troops arrived the nursing staff tried to hand her over, but the American troops went around and shot a few people before they came back for her. That was the story as we heard it - how does it compare?

Does the phrase, "Deafening silence" strike fear into your heart? Because it sure as hell does mine.

And that's exactly what followed Jessica Lynch's testimony. The only way you knew about it was if you watched C-Span, or if you keep your eye on the Liberal/Progressive Blogs. Other than that...nothing. Positively nothing.

It's enough to make you weep.

This is why more and more people in the U.S. are reading foreign news services. It's the only way we can figure out what's actually going on in our own country these days.

I have to say that the deafening silence doesn't surprise me. I have come to the conclusion that we can't really blame many Americans for what they say about things when we realise that they actually don't know anything about so much that is happening outside their own country. Or even inside it. ('They' not 'you' because you do read outside information - time was it was 'inside information' that told you the most...!)

At least in the UK a lot of the media does not appear to just slavishly follow the government line - but GWB's administration seem to have found the perfect way of getting their propaganda to work - tell everyone that to disagree is unpatriotic, unAmerican, nay even traitorous, and then any independant reporter who does say anything is shot down by all the others for being unpatriotic. It is absolute genius - it is also the sort of thing that they invade other people's countries over.....

It's a situation that makes me weep. I worked in newspapers right at the beginning of this downward trend. I'm glad that I'm not in journalism now.

As for how we got to this point where the press is parroting propaganda and U.S. citizens are being kept in the dark, there are so many different historical threads that it's hard to keep straight. Many of of those historical threads go back to the Nixon administration — and it's shocking how many people in GWB's administration also go all the way back to Nixon.

Part of the root of this is money. There are an awful lot of very, very wealthy people funding the neocons. Hence the screaming you hear about MoveOn and George Soros. (Soros is considered something of a "class traitor" by the neocons.)

Part of it is the rise of Christianists (backed by that neocon money), who want to put the U.S. under the "rule of the Bible," in very much the same way that radical Islamists (who are actually a minority in Islam) want to put their countries under Sharia law.

Christianists, by the way, seem to me to especially susceptible to authoritarianism. Talking to one of them is a lot like talking to someoen who's been brainwashed because, honest to God, they do not engage the real world in any way. It seems all of them are heavily involved in some kind of "shadow economy" in which they have religious alternatives to education, buying/selling goods, and media. All of it seems to be designed to keep away pesky ideas that might make them uncomfortable.

Please note: Not all Christians are Christianists. In fact, most Chrsistians aren't Christianists. It's just that right now the Christianists seem to have more power than their numbers indicate they should, in large part because GWB is one of them.

The Christianist-Neocon axis has spawned a lot of the U.S.'s current nightmares. It's pretty complicated to get into here, and keeping track of all the different tangled threads is a lot like trying to wrestle an octopus, but it's shocking how this has happened and how it's shocking how much power they have.

Also, I think people really do underestimate the effect elminationist rhetoric from the Christianists-Neocons has had on ordinary citizens. Let's face it: if someone kept saying on the radio over and over and over again that you should be killed because your political opinion is X instead of Y, and if you keep hearing people agree with them, you're going to keep a low profile.

(Media Matters and Orcinus are among the leading Web sites that keep track of eliminationist rhetoric and its effect on public discourse.)

As it so happens, I live in a state (Massachusetts), that has been the U.S. whipping-boy for ev0l libuhruhls since the Nixon administration. There are days when people in this state get criticized just for breathing oxygen by some of the more hideous wingnut broadcasters.

Seriously, if we ever get an spasm of violence like in Rwanda Genocide (Rwanda saw elminationist rhetoric spewed against Tutsis and moderate Hutus for years before the actual attacks), my state's on the hit list elimination.

And now I sound like a conspiracy theorist.

In truth, I confess that the real surprise isn't that Americans are so completely ignorant about what's going on both inside and outside the country.

The real surprise is that there are any politically engaged Americans who not only have (finally) figured out the truth about Iraq, but who hate the Bush administration as much as they do. That's the shocker.

You can understand why a lot of Europeans regard America as the biggest threat to world peace really.

The Christian Fundamentalists weird me out - they are scary - and so un-Christian. And they only actually seem to believe in The Old Testament and Revelation - they are, practically, not Christian but Johnians. Most Christian groups regard Revelation as only just having scraped in to the Bible on a split vote anyway!

Yes. We didn't hear about the Pat Tillman or Jessica Lynch bits when we were getting coverage on CBC Radio One.

But we got pretty well everything else. I work in advertising. I know how to pitch and sell a product. I can also smell propoganda from three miles off. I also served ten years as a Canadian reeservist, had worked with the American forces and have a few clues as to when a story was probably spin.

To my mind, the ramp-up to the current Iraq war was pretty bleeding obvious. What was dumb-founding to a lot of people (but not all!) north of the border was the lack of media challenge to the White House line.

All that patriotism and determination/fear coming out of the post-9/11 period was _scary_. _Especially_ when Dubya said in essence "just keep on shopping".

I was so proud when Jean Chretien said no. I'm spitting nails at the current PM, Stephen Harper.

FWIW, I missed the air date, and caught the piece on the PBS website. Rah-rah for live streaming and internet feeds!

whats the quote

"when you make peaceful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable"

when the media beleives the lies it is fed what can you do but go looking elsewhere, but even then how many people actually go looking for independent news?

have you read Transmetropolitan? its a Comic book, now availble in ten books. the main character is a politcal reporter at some point in the distant/not so distant future. Its a world were reporters report only press releases, and investigave reporters merely dig up old press releases! the Main character is one who actually goes looking for information for his stories.

i always took it as a warning of tends in news reporting, i think it is coming more true than i feared!

Bill Moyers is a true journalist in the very best sense of the word. I'm delighted to see him back on PBS.

I just watched Selling the War on streaming video. It is appalling to see how easily the media were led down the garden path by the Bush administration, and how little truly critical thinking there was. I was stunned when they talked about how Ted Kennedy, one of the most powerful and vocal Democrats, had a speech in which he laid out many of the inconsistencies of the pro-war agenda, and had it relegated to 36 words in the Press. It seems like the majority of the press took a course in boot licking from the White House.
It's frightening, to say the least.

When can we kick those lying SOBs out of the White House? I'd do it myself if I could.

Yeah, it's depressing. For all the Rights bashing of the Liberal Media on this one (And they don't bash the media because of bias - they bash because they don't control it) the media actually didn't push very hard for a long time. Even at the Washington Post where what critical stories there were in the 2003-4 timeframe were always buried on page A14.

While I mostly agree with the sentiments above I gotta disagree that a more vigorous media would have had any affect on the decision to go to war. Here in Britain a lot of the mainstream press was very sceptical about the build up to war, huge anti war demo in London etc and the end result was the same.Would the result have been different if the press had done it's job in U.S? I don't think so to be honest.

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The We Love Propaganda Edition

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