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Politics : The Castle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (600)	11/19/2002 6:22:48 PM
From: MSI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7936

if for example Rush is a toadie to the CIA He's just doing what any entertainer and bombast in his position would do -- taking advantage of major support to further his entertainment career. He never billed himself as an investigative journalist with any obligation for accuracy. That came later, tongue in cheek. He never submits to any kind of reckoning or unscripted press conference, as should a politician, nor does anyone expect him to. Therefore he can say whatever generates controversy and audience, without fear of contradiction. The one way a lot of media becomes an echo chamber for the government is when other sources of information are lacking and the media can only get the info from the government. True. Re: media influence, read "The Mighty Wurlitzer" references in google. pir.org Also prospect.org Here's an example of how a hit piece or rumor, by Brock in this case, gets recycled and amplified into a snowball, through small right-wing journal, then radio show, mainstream press, then a book, and into "accepted wisdon", even tho' there was no basis to begin with -- "With all that ideological money, institutional heft, coordination, and credentialing, the right has perfected what the CIA used to call a "mighty Wurlitzer" -- a propaganda machine that can hone a fact or a lie, broadcast it, and have it echoed and recycled in Fox News commentary, in Washington Times news stories, in Wall Street Journal editorials, by myriad right-wing pundits, by Heritage seminars and briefing papers, and in congressional hearings and speeches. Privatization of Social Security, vouchers for school, Vince Foster's supposed murder, Hillary's secret sex life, you name it -- the right's mighty Wurlitzer can ensure that a message is broadcast across the county, echoed in national and local news, and reverberated in the speeches of respectable academics as well as rabid politicians. With no factual basis, Brock trashes Hill -- " a little slutty and a little nutty" was the quote chosen for effect -- in The American Spectator, with a circulation of 30,000. Rush Limbaugh then reads from the article on his radio show, broadcast to two million people. Conservative pundits recycle the charges in columns and radio shows across the country. Brock turns the article into a book at the Free Press, which gets George Will to hype the book in a column. The Wall Street Journal devotes virtually an entire editorial page to excerpts. That ensures that the book is treated seriously in The New York Times Book Review and kindred publications. And so it goes. A biased, politically inspired hatchet job becomes a bestseller, clothed in the praise of conservative pundits. "