Is it truth, or just "Bushspeak"?
As Nancy Pelosi and others noted in response to President Disaster's attempt to dupe us into thinking progress is being made in Iraq, "Just because the President says it, doesn't make it so.", which of course, is a rather convoluted way of saying that he's a serial liar. (Note: Time Magazine's chief correspondent in Baghdad, who knows, says both Bush and Leiberman are liars.)
But the lying and deception isn't just limited to the top, it runs right through the administration, the party, and even their over-paid crony contractors in Iraq.
The Bush administration has been documented as having used taxpayer money to pay pundits and journalists in this country, most notably Armstrong Williams, who was paid a tidy $250,000 to shill for administration policies, and others, to promote and propagandize their positions in the media while corruptly hiding the fact that they were paid shills.
They've also produced tax-payer funded fake "news reports", complete with a fake "reporter" giving a fake "report", which they then shipped to friendly local stations who in turn aired them as straight news without revealing that they were produced by the administration.
Well, now we learn that we've all been paying The Lincoln Group, a republican connected PR firm, millions in order to pull the same crap on Iraqis, only worse. The military has been writing propaganda which the Lincoln Group then bribes Iraqi papers to run, and of course, it's run as straight news without revealing that it's source is the U.S. government.
Billmon has it covered.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 12/01/2005
13 comments
13 Comments:
"The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country. "
How is this bad?
Sometimes I despair that we can ever keep our democracy when I hear questions like that.
It really needs to be explained?
The stories were written by military propagandists, yet were published as straight news with no acknowledgement of the source.
If the military or administration wants to spread it's version of reality, it can do so on it's own radio stations or TV stations there, which they have plenty of, or by leaflets, billboards, skywriting, or whatever.
As long as it's identified as being from the U.S. government, that's fine.
But these phoney stories are represented as honest reporting from an Iraqi newspaper, thus giving the false impression that it's the way Iraqi's or the newspaper actually feels.
The papers are PAID to accept this stuff. It wasn't honest, it was deceptive, and it's NOT the free press that Rummy and Bush falsely claim exists there and that is a crucial component of any democracy.
If you can't see anything bad about that, then we're all sunk.
If the government, corporation, interest group, or individual was PAYING to have their slanted stories inserted into the Dispatch, say, and it was run as straight news with no mention of it's source, you'd see nothing wrong with that?
Are you daft?
Paying a media source to print your unvarnished views is called ADVERTISING and if it's not labeled as such, it's dishonest and a lie.
Or are you suggesting that filling the Iraqi's with dishonest BS is just hunky dory as long as it portrays the occupation in a positive light and is anti-insurgency?
And how does that help build our credibility over there? When Iraqi's can't trust anything they read in the papers because it could be bought and paid for US propaganda, how in the hell is that accomplishing anything?
Is that a great step towards the democracy Bush blathers about establishing?
Is part of showing Iraqi's the benefits of democracy rigging their press? That's absurd!
Joe Lieberman is an utter disgrace, and really should just switch parties and get it over with.
Besides being the Perry Como of politics, he's obviously is far too beholden to the interests of the state of Israel rather than the U.S.
Can't you just feel the Joementum??
If you don't have a scandal,
make one up. It's easy, just treat it as a scandal, use all the buzzwords, ridicule and abuse a press secretary or two. Phrases like,"the latest controversy is rocking a troubled administration", and so on. Without being very sure why left/liberal rank and file ant heap dwellers will be outraged. Nancy Pelosi will be carried from her Mausoleum to make a Statement and polls will show that Bush is lower than Death Valley. This will go on for one to two weeks and then another round of fantasist make believe. the media is probably angry that someone might be making money to do what they do for free, and for the wrong side to boot. It used to be called propaganda and was an instrument of war but that's a no no when you are expected to announce defeat, come home, and wait patiently for the next 9/11.
hahaha! That's funny!
Guess you figure that as long as we're feeding men and women into a meat-grinder in Iraq, we'll all be magically safe from those big bad 'terrists?
Keep sacrificing billions and billions of dollars and thousands of lives ended forever to the 'terrist gods over there and we'll be protected here in small-town America?
Ya gotta snap out of it there, Skippy.
All I can say is, be sure to get to sleep early on Christmas Eve. Santa won't come if you're awake.
we'll take Lieberman, you can have Spector
Um...(snicker)... OK.
And while you're here. Wanna trade that Mercedes for this Yugo?
Spector is a Mercedes? That's a good one. I've got a few more I'll give you.
If they're smart and pricipled like Spector, fine. If they're just pompous blowhard fakes like Warner, or whack-jobs like Tancredo, Schmidt, or any of the many unbalanced zealots you have, or outright crooks and theives like Delay, Cunningham, the Governor of Ohio, or all the rest, you can keep 'em.
Anon 21:56
You are in what psychiatrists call DEEP DENIAL....
Tell me just which White House and Republican scandals lately are "made up".
Should be a piece of cake for a well-informed person such as yourself.
I'm waiting.
You drank the conservatoid kool-ade and you're really a prime candidate for deprogramming from the cult you've fallen into.
This is exactly why the left cannot be trusted with national security
Anon above... you sir, are an idiot.
Just look how GREAT we've done at national security while the entire government has been run by your wing-nut conservatives!
Worst attack on U.S. soil ever, a complete and utter failure in capturing those responsible, jumping into Vietnam x 2, ... and on and on.
You've got to be freaking JOKING!
Ignoring the systematic dismantling of the intelligence community by Bill "I'm getting my law license back" Clinton doesn't begin to explain your utter ignorance of the situation at hand.
Just repeating " I hate Bush" doesn't make your argument valid, moron joun.
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