The Big Lie Culture

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Fri, 24 Feb 2006 05:47:59 -0800 (PST)

The Big Lie Culture

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.bopnews.com/archives/006047.html#6047

 

 

The Big Lie Culture

by Ian Welsh

 

 

 

" You can't fool all the people all the time. You can fool all the

people some of the time, or some of the people all the time.... " Bush

Codicil, " and those are the people you have to concentrate on. "

 

The US is now a propaganda state. There is no other way to put it. The

majority of Americans thought that Iraq had something to do with 9/11.

There was never any good evidence for it, and the President and his

lackeys were always careful not to actually say it, instead they would

make speeches about Iraq, calling for war, mention 9/11 repeatedly,

and let listeners draw their own conclusions. The Press repeated this,

somehow making Iraq about 9/11. Of course, al-Q'aeda was in Iraq, with

US Kurdish allies...

 

The Iraq war was sold on lies. How it occured was simple - someone in

the administration, or one of their mouthpieces in the media would

make a claim (remember the " drones of death? " ). The claim would be

frontpage news and on the networks. In a few days it would be debunked

(the drones of death turned out to be oversize model airplanes), but

that wouldn't get mentioned in the media prominently - in the

newspapers it would be buried on the back pages and it often wasn't

mentioned on the cable networks at all.

 

As a result, the majority of Americans, who get what news they get

from TV or from scanning the newspaper's news section briefly before

hitting the sports or entertainment sections came, quite logically, to

believe that Iraq had WMD, had been involved with 9/11 and was and

ongoing threat to the US which had to be invaded before it could

attack the US again.

 

This is a constant pattern. And it predates 9/11. During the 2000

election campaign, for example, Bush's budget numbers didn't add up.

He was spending the surplus twice (one of the few " promises " he kept.)

Paul Krugman noticed this, and spent the better part of the campaign

debunking it, over and over again.

 

He was told by the NY Times editors that he could not use the word

" lie " . He was told that even after he had corrected the numbers

numerous times and the Bush campaign continued to, well, " lie " . (None

of my editors won't let me use the " lie " word.)

 

There are three patterns.

 

First: stories are reported unquestioningly, then when debunked the

debunking is either ignored completely, or if acknowledged at all it

is done much more briefly than the original announcement, and often

buried in the equivalent of the back pages.

 

Second stories are reported as if they are differences of opinion,

" Bush administration states earth is flat, some Democrats disagree. "

Because, of course, fact checking is too much work and would require

reporters to risk access. Saying " Bush administration says earth is

flat, good thing that Columbus knew otherwise 500 years ago " would

piss off your contacts.

 

Third is simple bias. Outright hit pieces or propaganda feeds. The

most egregious recently, although it was an internal Democratic fight,

was against Dean, with the infamous Dean scream. It took a concious

decision to run altered tapes to produce that " Dean Scream " . No one,

no one, who was actually there, heard it. They produced a story out of

whole cloth. It was, in the most clear sense, a hit piece.

 

Hit pieces are produced all the time. But then there are propaganda

feeds. Everyone's favourite first amedment " martyr " Judy Miller was a

Republican asset in the New York Times. She fed straight propaganda

into the system, and was willing to go to jail rather than to burn her

handler.

 

Many " journalists " , talking heads and columnists are propaganda feeds.

They are often paid cold hard cash to write op-eds and columns which

support their clients interests. When they are not paid directly, they

are paid indirectly with " scoops " . Remember that Judy Miller was

highly thought of at first - she broke a lot of WMD stories. They were

mostly wrong, but they were dramatic and it took time to find out they

were fake.

 

But don't kid yourself that it would ever have come to what it did,

that she would have been " found out " and fired, if there hadn't been

one of the few remaining incorruptible and ushakeable federal

prosecutors assigned to the case.

 

Oh, not that we didn't know she was a liar. But there would have been

no consequences that mattered to Judith, if Fitzgerald hadn't publicly

humiliated her and the Times in a way that they could not ignore.

 

No, for the most part being a propaganda feed, or a journalistic hit

man is a very good deal. You get easy scoops or maybe even straight

cut checks. It's a good life, and your powerful patrons will usually

try to protect you as well, so the downside a la Miller is very rare.

And if you are found out, in general, you'll be taken care of.

 

It is impossible to make the correct decisions about anything if you

are delusional. In the US those with power and influence do everything

they can to keep the American public delusional, so they can do what

they want.

 

And be clear that the way they do it, on big issues, is nothing more

or less than the Big Lie technique pioneered by pre-World War II

Germans. Tell a big lie, and stick to it. Iraq has WMD. We can cut

taxes and revenue will increase. Iraq was involved with 9/11. John

Kerry was a coward in Vietnam.

 

There is no solution to the US's problems that does not include a

radical break up of the media conglomerates which now dominate print,

broadcast and cable news. There is no solution which does not involve

reinstating the fairness doctrine. And there is no solution which does

not involve drumming out of journalistic life those who continually

lie to the public either by omission or comission.

 

No country can be healthy, sane, or democratic, when the fourth estate

is corrupt or a tool of the State and powerful interests. It is the

corruption of the US media that leaves me with the least hope for the

US, because while the truth won't set you free, without the truth no

freedom is possible.

 

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by Ian Welsh

Feb 18 ,