rssHow to Manipulate the Press
Friday, May 09, 2008 at 2:30 pm
- 3 Comments
Want to see a great example of the arrogance of power? Digging through the Pentagon document dump covering its manipulation of the media, Cernig unearths the following truffle:
Beginning on page 17 of this document, there’s a conversation about how to spin friendly fire incidents in the initial invasion phase of the Iraq war. Press officer LTC Kenneth McClellan notes:
“That’s what I like about the American press. The dirt clods used to come before and during the fight – - as they would tend to do internationally. Now they seem to come principally afterwards.”
The subject? How they’re going to explain why, after 3 White Sands studies on friendly fire issues, they’re still relying on “foil on plywood and glint tape on helmets” for air-to-ground IFF and why the three services purchased different IFF systems that didn’t work together.
Friendly fire incidents, the talking points pack issued to the pet analysts notes, killed 35 and wounded 72 U.S. troops. [Let's not even talk about British losses to u.S. fire, OK?] That’s an increase to 17% from WW2′s 12-14% and Vietnam’s 10-14%.
Callous bastard, this McClellan, eh? But he’s sure they’ve got a tame press – and thus the public are subjected to another kind of friendly fire, pushing the administration’s spin.
And that’s really the important point. The press tolerates this sort of stuff as a condition of access. Hey fellas: how about we remember that our responsibilities are to the public, and not to the administration?
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3 Comments
Comment posted May 11, 2008 @ 6:08 am
If the Mainstream media had any balls they would just not show up at any of this administration’s press conferences (Defense Dept., Dept of State, etc.) Watching these things on C-Span I get the feeling that I have wasted precious time that could have been better used for cutting my toenails or flossing my teeth.
Comment posted May 11, 2008 @ 1:08 am
If the Mainstream media had any balls they would just not show up at any of this administration's press conferences (Defense Dept., Dept of State, etc.) Watching these things on C-Span I get the feeling that I have wasted precious time that could have been better used for cutting my toenails or flossing my teeth.
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