The absence of news that used to be hot and heavy in news cycles heavily suggests propaganda [View all]

[DisgustipatedinCA]

-Does anyone remember a flurry of articles about "steganography" just after September 11th, 2001? This was said to be secret code imbedded in otherwise harmless computer files, like a .jpg photo, and it was how Al Qaeda was planning to secretly communicate. They would just send one another pictures, and in so doing, communicate their secret plans to kill the Great Satan, etc. I've never heard another word about this since that initial flurry of stegomania.

-Next: we're no longer afraid of a smallpox attack. Recall, before September 11th, it was common knowledge that only two samples of smallpox remained on the planet: one at CDC in Atlanta, and one in Russia, wherever they keep their nasty stuff. Then 9/11 happened, and we were bombarded with scare stories about al Qaeda attacking us with weaponized smallpox. It was never explained how AQ was to have gotten their hands on smallpox from one of the two ultra-high security places where it still existed, but no matter, it's gone again, and we don't talk about it anymore. At all. Ever.

-Anthrax. I'm still convinced this was a complete Cheney operation, and I'm not terribly conspiracy-minded (although I have my moments). This one is a little different in nature. They blamed a guy. He killed himself. It's over. Except that I have serious doubts that the guy who apparently killed himself actually did this.

-Email Spam: this isn't exactly a political issue, but the nimrods in congress from time to time used to try to make it an issue, as did media outlets. The efficacy of spam filters is more or less the same as it was when it was being breathlessly reported that spam was a giant issue clogging the tubes, etc. Experts were interviewed, and we needed to do something right away if the Internet was to remain a viable communications medium. This no longer matters, for some reason that hasn't been explained to us.

-Nuclear power plants, hydro dams, and the like, will be hacked from the Internet, causing mayhem, death, and financial collapse. They never got around to explaining just exactly why the hell a nuclear power plant operator would put their control systems on the Internet--maybe it was so that Homer Simpson could VPN in from home. But again, no matter. We don't talk much about that anymore.

I realize these don't come as any surprise to regular readers of this website--we've known about the catapultin' of propaganda for a long time. But it would be nice if the media were called to account on some of these bs stories. If you have more examples of here-and-scary-today, but gone-and-never-mentioned tomorrow, I'd be interested in seeing some more examples.