A shocking and historic 11 page investigative report by David Barstow of The New York Times produces telling and indicting evidence of the large extant to which the Pentagon and Defense Department has sought, since before the invasion of Iraq, to dominate and control the messages poured forth daily by American news media organizations.
Using retired generals and colonels of the armed forces, who in the aftermath of 9/11 found their professional opinions of particular value to the news media, as self described “surrogates” for their message (that Iraq was an imminent threat to US security, that the insurgency was in its last throes, that democracy was taking hold, that Guantanamo Bay was more like a resort hotel etc, etc…) the Times report details a carefully managed defense department public relations campaign to spoon feed these former soldiers (and therefore the American public) that famous concoction of Neo-Con kool-aide.
By participating in this media whitewash, the former soldiers, many of whom work in defense contracting industries, were privy to top secret government information which they could advertise to their prospective clients as “timely and in the know.” It was a very cushy deal. All they had to do was subvert any preconceived notion about their responsibilities as disinterested media analysts.
This, in case you haven’t surmised it yet, is GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED MEDIA. This was the tactic of Soviet Russia, Communist China and Nazi Germany. The idea is to quash dissent and encourage citizens to wrap themselves around the warm security blanket of the ever burgeoning national security state.
Once again, it is the ghosts of Vietnam and its misinterpreted lesson which are rearing its ugly head. One of the main lessons which Conservatives took from that misbegotten war was that it was the news media, who for the first time in world history, displaying the horrific images of war in a ghastly nightly barrage, cost our nation the humiliating defeat which absolutely wrecked our Armed Forces. It wasn’t that the US army was doctrinally incapable of fighting a protracted guerilla war, or that failing to mobilize the country for said conflict was unsustainable and irresponsible. No, it was the media’s fault.
Vietnam refuses to exit from the American psyche. That is why in 2008, with the chicken-hawks in office, we are never permitted to see body bags. That is why our army does not “do civilian casualty figures.” We are not to know the reality. That is the bottom line.
There are no sufficient words in the American lexicon to accurately portray my indignation. The obfuscation and systematic deception organized by the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his cronies, have resulted in an a tragically endless war which has left our Army debilitated and our nation once again internally divided over a war which never should have begun.
Using retired generals and colonels of the armed forces, who in the aftermath of 9/11 found their professional opinions of particular value to the news media, as self described “surrogates” for their message (that Iraq was an imminent threat to US security, that the insurgency was in its last throes, that democracy was taking hold, that Guantanamo Bay was more like a resort hotel etc, etc…) the Times report details a carefully managed defense department public relations campaign to spoon feed these former soldiers (and therefore the American public) that famous concoction of Neo-Con kool-aide.
By participating in this media whitewash, the former soldiers, many of whom work in defense contracting industries, were privy to top secret government information which they could advertise to their prospective clients as “timely and in the know.” It was a very cushy deal. All they had to do was subvert any preconceived notion about their responsibilities as disinterested media analysts.
This, in case you haven’t surmised it yet, is GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED MEDIA. This was the tactic of Soviet Russia, Communist China and Nazi Germany. The idea is to quash dissent and encourage citizens to wrap themselves around the warm security blanket of the ever burgeoning national security state.
Once again, it is the ghosts of Vietnam and its misinterpreted lesson which are rearing its ugly head. One of the main lessons which Conservatives took from that misbegotten war was that it was the news media, who for the first time in world history, displaying the horrific images of war in a ghastly nightly barrage, cost our nation the humiliating defeat which absolutely wrecked our Armed Forces. It wasn’t that the US army was doctrinally incapable of fighting a protracted guerilla war, or that failing to mobilize the country for said conflict was unsustainable and irresponsible. No, it was the media’s fault.
Vietnam refuses to exit from the American psyche. That is why in 2008, with the chicken-hawks in office, we are never permitted to see body bags. That is why our army does not “do civilian casualty figures.” We are not to know the reality. That is the bottom line.
There are no sufficient words in the American lexicon to accurately portray my indignation. The obfuscation and systematic deception organized by the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his cronies, have resulted in an a tragically endless war which has left our Army debilitated and our nation once again internally divided over a war which never should have begun.
1 comment:
it's scary because it's true.
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