Spin and silence

given I take my news from a wide sample of web sources and watch little TV, I might have missed a story but now that you mention it…nope not a peep out of the willing [knowing?] enablers of this propaganda campaign.

Anyone else have data counter to John’s observation?

The acceptance of “spin” as a form of argumentative prowess in our culture has effectively normalized dishonesty. Accordingly, there is no longer any shared expectation of a responsibility to truthfully report events in our society.

The pernicious consequences of the normalization of dishonesty are clear to any thoughtful person, and we shall all bear these consequences.

Expect this to all change 180 degrees if Obama is elected. “Spin” will suddenly be demonized and every pundit will get the vapors at the slightest hint of it from the Obama administration.

The thing is, I suspect that most people assume that all the major media institutions are an extension of the government. Some of these institutions are more sympathetic to the Democrats, others to the Republicans – and this is where where the drama lies, to most people.

The Fox News is too pro-Republican, the CBS (or whatever) is too pro-Democratic, etc. The fact that these institutions channel, one way or another, views and messages of the major government cliques is natural, it’s expected; it doesn’t shock, doesn’t surprise.

It’s also seems natural (and has been proclaimed openly) that in the times of crises (and around these times) the the major media institutions must support the government. That is their duty. No Shock, no surprise there; everyone knows this is the way it is, this is the way it’s always been, it is what it is.

Not that different from Pravda, really. You read the propaganda, you guess what’s going on, you become good at it, then you start enjoying it sorta like the crossword puzzle, you enjoy being clever. So, you see, it’s all for the best. It can’t be different.

Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1341.

Score: Well-informed CT readers 1, Trolls -100

Thanks, rb

I don’t want to take credit for being well informed…I’m fiddling around with a computer that can access Google. Perhaps functional is telegraphing comments to CT.

This is from TPM today:

The Department of Defense inspector general announced last Friday that it was undertaking a investigation of the program, and the Congress’ own General Accountability Office has “already begun looking into the program and would give a legal opinion on whether it violated longstanding prohibitions against spending government money to spread propaganda to audiences in the United States.”

Of course we have had quite a lot of enquiries that have gone nowhere, particularly with DoD.

Meanwhile, the TV networks have remained largely silent, as their credibility and transparency have been tarnished by the revelations about the program. As Media Matters has documented, the military analysts named in the Times piece appeared or were quoted more than 4,500 times on broadcast networks, cable news channels, and NPR. One minute they were giving ostensibly objective analysis, the next they were fawning over Rummy in private as “the leader.”

Meanwhile, in Canberra, the Libs are still busily pretending that the ABC has a leftwing bias… I guess if you believe the Murdoch media is telling it straight down the line, that’s how things might look.

!!!

Quoth Pee Wee Herman.