Media as Propaganda
Last night I watched the Bill Moyers Journal PBS documentary, “Buying the War.” In it, Moyers explores the American media’s failure to fact-check, to verify truth and expose lies by interviewing objective sources in the months before the war in Iraq. Instead, the American media relied on administration statements for information and failed to think their way through Bush’s build-up. Knight Ridder (sold to McClatchy Co in June 2006) emerges as the sole source of accuracy during that period, from about August 2002 to March 2003, when so-called liberal media like The New York Times and Washington Post devoted thousands of words to regurgitating the Bush propaganda that Saddam Hussein had WMDs and was connected to the 9-11 attacks. So many prominent journalists passively accepted their role in unknowingly perpetuating the hawkish lies of Rummy, Condi, Bushie, Cheney, and even Colin. In “Buying the War,” they acknowledge the failure of the war – and their own failure to do the research required of them as professional journalists.
Bring Back the Elites
The Moyers documentary reminded me of a recent HBO “Real Time With Bill Maher.” Maher’s “New Rules” mentioned Monica Goodling, who recently resigned in the wake of the US Attorneys Scandal and was the 3rd-ranking official in the US Justice Department. Goodling is a graduate of Regent University Law School, Pat Robertson’s law school, a Tier 4 school according to US News and World Report. See this Boston Globe article on Regent. How does a 33 year old graduate of one of the lowest-ranking law schools in the country, a person who, as Maher pointed out, doesn’t even have experience as a prosecutor, rise to the highest levels of the US Justice? Pat Robertson’s school has fed 150 (!) graduates to the Bush Administration. Again, how?
Well, according to The Political Animal on CBS News.com, “Bush hired one of Regent’s deans to be director of the Office of Personnel management and John Ashcroft changed Department of Justice rules to end the practice of having veteran lawyers screen applicants.”
This isn’t meritocracy – it’s mediocrity – and Affirmative Action for the affluent.
Comment(s)
Amen on Bill Moyers. The press that’s attacking Bush now was just as guilty of jumping on the bandwagon.
As for Goodling, it’s just another example of the chickens not only coming home to roost, but having their feathers plucked for all to see!!!
Comment(s)
Here here!
Too bad a great many of the people in this nation are catatonic, otherwise they would have seen what was obvious to many from the very beginning.
More than 15 years ago I stopped looking to the media for facts.