Excellent interview on Buzzflash this morning...

[kentuck]

And it goes hand-in-hand with Will Pitt's post on "Freedom, Incorporated"... A little long but informative piece of the puzzle in regards to the workings of the media...
================================================================

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/06/int04031.html

<snip>
BuzzFlash: The most basic political technique of the right wing and the Republican party is character assassination. We’ve seen a shift perhaps from the discussion of politics into a dissection of personality. We saw that tellingly, of course, in the Clinton administration, with "Slick Willie" and so forth. Then we saw The New York Times and Washington Post adopt the Republican party attack on Al Gore -- that somehow he was a liar -- without really seriously questioning the massive deception and lies of the Bush campaign in 2000. They have started up with John Kerry, following the Republican line, saying he’s a waffler.

Robert Kane Pappas: If you wrote or sold a product so deceptively, you’d be in jail or out of business.

BuzzFlash: What is it about television? Most of the right wing commentators attack personality and character more than they even attack public policy.

Robert Kane Pappas: But it’s a technique. Some of this is real dark science. I remember in the run-up to the 2000 election, after the first debate -- and I believe it could have been planned because it was worked out so quickly -- one of the networks put together a montage of close ups of Al Gore expressing impatience with Bush’s answers -- exhaling. They strung together these two- and three-second clips. And within hours, on all the news shows the debate centered on Al Gore’s expressions, not the substance of the debate. They were able to absolutely change the discussion from what these guys were talking about, to a discussion about Al Gore’s facial expressions, giving Bush a complete free ride. Bush was barely coherent in the first debate, but it was all about Al Gore. That shows the amazing power of video.

The same thing happened with Dean, when he exhorted his followers following the Iowa Caucuses.

....much more

[Th1onein]

1. that's why the internet is so important

eom

[liveoaktx]

2. I got that CD "Orwell Rolls Over in His Grave*- recommend

you see it. It goes hand in hand with such books as "What Liberal Media" and "Republican Noise Machine" -even better to see, though, the perpetrators of the media's right wing domination say it in video.

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Brainwashing America

Insanity as Normalcy

The way in which the Bush junta is conducting itself is an interesting brainwashing technique in itself: Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, and the others continually commit OUTRAGES but don't excuse them, explain them, or invite reflection on these affronts to morality and sanity. In fact, when some timid media voice criticizes the Bush junta, the person is demonized as questioning behavior which is beyond reproach. (emphasis mine /jc)

Americans are being brainwashed to ask only the questions the Bushites allow and they are programmed to see everything the Bush junta does as unquestionably correct. The brainwashing has gone so far that Americans no longer see what has happened to our country.

Brainwashing America by Norman Livergood.

[Catfight]

4. This needs to be said over and over again everywhere. If the

media is hungry for viewership, then they'd be pressing for impeachment trials on Bush and I promise, there would be more people watching that than the OJ trial. Many people demand that Bush and his illegal cronies are punished for their crimes of an illegal war. Plus the fact that he's above the law..nothing satisfies Americans more than to put some big ego insane conquerer in his place.