Privatizing the Truth; Bush's war on information

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Thu, 25 Aug 2005 18:36:12

Privatizing the Truth; Bush's war on information

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Privatizing the Truth; Bush's war on information

Mike Whitney

 

August 25, 2005

 

''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality " .

Bush aide; Ron Suskind, New York Times Magazine 10-17-04

 

 

A great deal of print has been wasted on President Bush's inability to

tell the truth. In fact, it really makes little difference whether

Bush is a pathological liar or not. What is meaningful however is that

deception is the primary tool for the maintenance of the state.

Transparency and candor are now seen as direct threats to the

preservation of the status quo. This suggests that Bush's lying is not

simply a matter of human frailty or corruption, but a clear statement

of administration policy.

This may seem like a minor point, but in fact the conduct of the Bush

administration cannot be seriously evaluated without understanding

that deceit is the cornerstone of their class-based world view.

 

Evidence of this is everywhere, right down to the language that is

painstakingly minted in right-wing think tanks to conceal the real

meaning of administration policy. " The war on terror " , preemption " ,

and " enemy combatant " are just three expressions that are

intentionally designed to mislead the public. The real purpose of this

language is to elicit support for unpopular policies that serve the

exclusive interests of elites.

 

Administration policy is normally reduced to snappy sound-bytes that

charm the public and keep the main players " on message " . They are

released as " talking points " to their political and media surrogates

and disseminated from every newsroom and radio-station across the

country. This is the true meaning of propaganda; " to propagate " one's

ideas from many vantage points. No one has succeeded at this better

than the Bush administration.

 

As many commentators have already noted, the lead up to the war in

Iraq was perhaps the " high-water mark " for state propaganda.

Dissenting, anti-war voices were excluded from all the major media and

the false, uncorroborated charges against Saddam were highlighted in a

way to make war inevitable.

Reflecting on the imagery and theatrics that went into marketing

unprovoked aggression, the media-coup was carried out with astonishing

precision. Since then, however, media credibility has steadily

declined; leaving the public increasingly disenchanted with the

ongoing occupation and distrustful of the coverage.

 

The " privately " owned media is only capable of producing a narrative

that is compatible with the goals of ownership. Curtailing civil

liberties (Patriot Act, National ID etc) and waging war are never in

the public interest; they only serve the narrow objectives of the few

who stand to gain from them directly. It is critical that the

propaganda-system be progressively exposed so the public can see its

destructiveness and work to create a different model.

 

At present, the American system of governance is so inherently

corrupted that there is very little worth salvaging. The electoral

system has been clumsily rigged with voting technology that maintains

the appearance of democracy, but eliminates the real possibility of

majority rule. Similarly, the US Military, now deeply imbedded into

domestic affairs is directly involved in " Strategic Intelligence "

operations that are almost exclusively designed to deceive the

American people to sustain support for foreign interventions. Pat

Tillman and Jessica Lynch are classic examples of intentionally

misleading Military information, but there are countless

others related to the use of banned weapons, bombed wedding parties

and fabricated civilian casualty-rates.

Similar to the Bush administration, Pentagon deception is a matter of

policy not simply a " cover-up " . Nothing they say should be taken at

face value.

 

In Iraq, we have seen the military insert friendly journalists into

their operational structure; ensuring that the message they produce

corresponds with their overall strategic goals. The " embedded "

journalist-phenomenon establishes news organizations as a front-line

part of the military apparatus. The media is now a fully integrated

part of the armed services. The American people have seemingly

accepted this transparent absurdity without question.

On the other hand, we've seen journalists, who prefer to stay beyond

the reach of the military's control, directly targeted and sometimes

killed.

This gives us a good idea of how serious the civilian leadership takes

its role of making sure that the " facts fit the policy " .

 

In all areas of American life, information is being manipulated to

manage public perceptions. Most TV programming is intentionally

designed to make sure that the public is removed from the economic and

political facts that may either inform them of what is really going

on, or inspire them to get directly involved in the process. The goal

of media is to create a reliable base of consumers, not to cultivate

informed citizens in a participatory democracy. Julius Caesar

recommended " Bread and circuses " to keep the people amused and

uninvolved. The American media has faithfully honored that counsel.

 

With Bush the information-war has entered a new and more aggressive

phase. BBC has been purged by hostile groups after David Kelley stated

that Blair had " sexed up " the information that supported the drive to

war. Similarly, PBS and NPR have been infiltrated by Bush-loyalists to

remove liberal elements and craft a message that pleases their

corporate constituents. Also, Al Jazeera, which provides a uniquely

Arab view of the world to 40 million people, has been put up for sale

due to the extraordinary pressure applied by the Bush Administration.

 

Bush's top lieutenants are entirely committed to creating their own

storyline and calling it news. They are not restrained by the facts

that emerge from the " reality-based " community. They are equally

zealous about seeking out conflicting points-of-view and silencing

them through their attack-dogs in right-wing radio. We should assume

that they will do whatever it takes to eliminate the voices that

compete with the one message they want to convey.

 

This means that the internet, which is perhaps the last outpost of

democracy in America today, is undoubtedly part of the broader

government strategy for controlling information. The internet is seen

as " command and control " for the disparate leftist and liberal groups

that foment resistance against the political establishment. There

should be back-up plans to protect this vital resource. The Bush

administration has already demonstrated its penchant for toppling

regimes through " decapitation " or removal of the leadership. As the

nexus for leftist organization, the internet is a logical target for

this type of government disruption. Any attack on the system would be

catastrophic for the antiwar and anti-imperial movements as well as a

serious body-blow to personal freedom.

Be forewarned.

 

Both free speech and its antecedent the truth are much greater threats

to the state than any bomb-wielding revolutionary. In the new world

order only the managers are entitled to the truth, not the managed.

That way, the public can be moved sheep-like in the direction of

government policy. This means that hard news

on any topic is the implicit enemy of the political establishment. It

is only by providing a constant stream of diversions and fear

engendering alarms that the public can be kept in a persistent fog and

deprived of the right to choose. Information is freedom; and that

freedom is destined to become the province of the ruling class alone

if the public fails to organize resistance.

 

The administration is " privatizing " information in the same way they

have privatized all of the other tangible forms of wealth. The rest of

us are left with the lies and distortions that course through the

government's ideological-filter. This isn't a battle that can be won

without a struggle. We believe that the truth is the birthright of

every human being who will pursue it with an open heart and an

inquiring mind. And, we will fight to preserve that right.

 

Courtesy & Mike Whitney

 

 

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