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Blistering Ralph Peters Column on "Our" Media

This is Tokyo Rose reporting.

Who with your girlfriend tonight, GI?

If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have difficulty answering those questions these days. As Iraqi and Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has magically vanished from the headlines.

Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating.

But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our heads. How dare our troops win? Even worse, Iraqi troops are winning. Daily.

...

Today, Iraqi soldiers, not militia thugs, patrol the lanes of Sadr City, where waste has replaced roadside bombs as the greatest danger to careless footsteps. US advisers and troops support the effort, but Iraq's government has taken another giant step forward in establishing law and order.

My fellow Americans, have you read or seen a single interview with any of the millions of Iraqis in Sadr City or Basra who are thrilled that the gangster militias are gone from their neighborhoods?

Didn't think so. The basic mission of the American media between now and November is to convince you, the voter, that Iraq's still a hopeless mess.

...

Developments just keep getting grimmer for the MoveOn.org fan base in the media. Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who had supported al Qaeda and homegrown insurgents, now support their government and welcome US troops. And, in southern Iraq, the Iranians lost their bid for control to Iraq's government.

Bury those stories on Page 36.

Our troops deserve better. The Iraqis deserve better. You deserve better. The forces of freedom are winning.

Here in the Land of the Free, of course, freedom of the press means the freedom to boycott good news from Iraq. But the truth does have a way of coming out.

The surge worked. Incontestably. Iraqis grew disenchanted with extremism. Our military performed magnificently. More and more Iraqis have stepped up to fight for their own country. The Iraqi economy's taking off. And, for all its faults, the Iraqi legislature has accomplished far more than our own lobbyist-run Congress over the last 18 months.

When Iraq seemed destined to become a huge American embarrassment, our media couldn't get enough of it. Now that Iraq looks like a success in the making, there's a virtual news blackout.

One of InstaPundit's readers made a brilliant point. During WWII, Japan's government and media always claimed Japan was winning every single battle. But careful listeners could divine the way the War in the Pacific was really going by noting the locations of each of these "victories" -- each of these "victories" seemed to be occurring closer and closer to the Japanese mainland.

In a near-exact reversal of that situation, the American media laments each and every American "defeat"... but careful readers will note that the "Zone of Quagmire" seems to be radiating farther and farther out from US power centers and closer and closer to the heart of Al Qaeda/insurgent/Sadrist control.

We began by losing in Fallujah so badly our troops now say there are weeks that go by without hearing a gun shot. It's quiet there now... Too quiet.

We then lost Baghdad catastrophically. You can tell we lost because there are so few reports of mortar attacks hitting the Green Zone. The enemy won there by moving further and further out from the city. You know -- surrounding us.

We then lost in Basra so dreadfully it apparently simply vanished from the map entirely, perhaps sucked into another dimension through an interplanar vortex.

Next up we lost in Sadr's last bastion of power -- the slum he's named for -- which you can see by fact that the Iraqi Army is now patrolling the streets and conducts house-to-house searches for weapons. But we lost, because two concessions were made to the Sadrists -- "light weapons" (pistols, rifles) could be kept, one per person, and no US troops would accompany the IA. That last point really stung us, because you know our boys are heartbroken that the IA gets the glamor duty of patrolling this slum. Glory denied; a brilliant psyops tactic to crush the spirits of our troops.

And now we're losing in Mosul, of course.

It's a funny thing -- we keep "losing" by successively moving into the enemy's next-most-dear bastion and taking it for our own.

Meanwhile, they "melt into the shadows," thereby defeating us, because of course they always wanted to be in the shadows anyhow; it was just their bad luck to have wound up in non-shadowy major urban centers. They were sort of trapped there, victims of circumstances, but always had their eyes set on that rich shadowy utopia out in the hinterlands and deserts.

In a way, we did them a favor by finally encouraging them to move to where their hearts had always been from the start. So neener-neener, we still lose.

In related news, Grand Moff Tarkin just called to say, "Hey, everything's going just great here! We're kicking the Rebels' asses, which point is ably demonstrated by the fact that they are now attacking our most prestigious battlestation. (Inaudible as he speaks to someone else; sounds like "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their pants." Not really sure what that "pants" business is all about. Then he talks to me again.) So, yeah, I think we'll just finish mopping up here, easy-peasy lemon-squeezey. Say, if you could post that big busted Japanese model video again I'd be eternally--"

And then I lost the connection.

I hope he calls back. He seems like a good man. A good Republican man.

Thanks to Tall Dave for reminding me who'd made this point originally.


Posted by: Ace at 06:28 PM



Comments

1 The insurgents are still firmly entrenched in their headquarters at the New York Times.

Posted by: stinky esposito at May 20, 2008 06:37 PM (fCbrZ)

2

I liked this post better when it was the LONGEST. SIDEBAR. ENTRY. EVAH.

 

But, yeah, "our" media sucks.

Posted by: Jack M. at May 20, 2008 06:40 PM (b96e6)

3

I forget who it was who noted this, but it's a brilliant point.

It was an email to Instapundit from a Walter Boxx:

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/018975.php

UPDATE: Reader Walter Boxx emails: "The way the Japanese could tell they were losing WWII was that the great victories reported by their media were getting closer and closer to home. Our media problem is like a fun-house mirror version of this - the way we can tell we are winning is that our crushing defeats are happening less often and to different enemies."

Posted by: TallDave at May 20, 2008 06:43 PM (5RXX+)

4 We are still in complete control of the media!  The bloggers are dying like flies against the front gates of our building as we speak.  There are no bloggers that people pay attention to anywhere, I tell you.  They are begging for mercy as we slaughter them with The Mother of all Narratives!!

Posted by: Baghdad Pinch at May 20, 2008 06:47 PM (ZrS0c)

5 More war news from the battlefront: "Old Media Reader- and Viewership Plummeting, Ad Revenues Shriveling; Liberal Media (but I repeat myself) Hardest Hit."

The news keeps getting better.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at May 20, 2008 06:47 PM (Uy68a)

6 The American media makes Baghdad Bob look like a credible source.

Posted by: DrewM. at May 20, 2008 06:48 PM (hlYel)

7 You know who else is a good republican?  Cobra Commander that's who.

Posted by: chad at May 20, 2008 07:06 PM (lNQg8)

8 You Rethuglican Neocons make me sick. Does killing Iraqi civilians give you a thrill up your leg? Does illegal war give you a thrill up your leg? Does oppressing a foreign nation where kite-flying used to be routine give you a thrill up your leg? Wait... what? It does? Well, that's because you're chickenhawks.

What should be giving you a thrill up your leg is hope... and change. That would be Barack Obama. And not that illegal war that has freed millions because hope and change then was bad. Now, Hope and ChangeTM == good.

But you bitter Bible-humping gun-clingers wouldn't know that which is why we try to bring our nightly perspectives into your living rooms to temper your bias.

Posted by: Tag Teaming Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann - Honest Broker Brothers at May 20, 2008 07:17 PM (Uy68a)

9
Wouldn't it be nice if Bush or even McClain read Peters' article, word for word, to a joint session of Congress, or in a press conference. Or if they merely paraphrased it? Wouldn't it be even nicer if POTUS and the Republican nominee-presumptive made it a point to discuss our successes every day, forcefully and vigorously--in other, providing an alternative to the corrupted MSM and in doing so taking on the MSM head-to-head?

Wouldn't that be nice? Betcha a lotta lotta Americans would love them for it.

Hey, a guy can dream.


Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate) at May 20, 2008 07:20 PM (CDg1b)

10

Turning Iraq into a beacon of hope does not hurt at all, especially as they have the largest proven oil reserves in the ME. Once we can lock this down, then it will be safe to bust up our "friends" the saudi's

old Mr president is looking like not such a bad "stratergy" guy after all

Posted by: bob dole at May 20, 2008 07:24 PM (hS/RG)

11

Steve (aka Ed Snate),

That would be PERFECT.

This just makes my blood boil. Seriously. I. Hate. The. Mainstream. Media.

But just imagine if it was before the internet and blogs. We wouldn't even be aware of the good news at all.

 

Posted by: Rightwingsparkle at May 20, 2008 07:26 PM (sO7l8)

12 The media better be careful about their cozy alliance pimping for AQ...the AQ "retirement plans" all pretty much suck ass from what I've seen.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at May 20, 2008 07:28 PM (fs+G8)

13 Steve (aka Ed Snate),

You mean use the bully pulpit to further a goal? What decade are you living in? This is the new age where, if you lean at all right, the proper style is to play bipartisan... at worst. Better yet, keep one's mouth closed and hope the grass roots will continue to carry your water. Taking a strong position and bludgeoning your political opponent repeatedly might ruffle feathers. And that is wrong.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at May 20, 2008 07:30 PM (Uy68a)

14 He makes a good point that the media is no longer has an interest in the mood on the "Iraqi street."

Remember when the Iraqis were miserable with no electricity, no water, fearing for their lives, and wanting the American invaders to leave? What happened to them?

Why isn't Christianne Amanpour on the Iraqi street in her burka showing the misery caused by the Americans?

Posted by: Bart at May 20, 2008 07:31 PM (UruV/)

15
Rightwingsparkle:

I'm totally agree with and share your sentiments.

I really don't, can't, understand why Bush and McCain don't hammer the MSM daily on this. Or why they don't get this news out front to Americans on a daily basis. So many Americans, I'm thinking, would respond positively to this, and for three reasons:

1) Good news about the war, any war, always provides a lift to the populace, and makes people look favorably on those who deliver it--especially if the messengers were in some way responsible for our successes, as is the case with Bush and the Republican Party.

2. So many people hate the MSM and would love it if Bush and McCain unsheashed their swords and went after the media with righteous take-no-prisoners wrath.

3. For the reasons stated above, McCain would benefit. If I were one of McCain's advisors, I would get on him to make the issue of success in the misreporting thereof by the MSM.

In the meantime, though--and as you pointed out--blogs and other outlets in the alternative (i.e., internet) media will have to do the heavy lifting in this regard.

Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate) at May 20, 2008 07:38 PM (CDg1b)

16

Steve (aka Ed Snate)

I am about to e-mail one of the McCain advisors that I know and ask just that.

Posted by: Rightwingsparkle at May 20, 2008 07:40 PM (sO7l8)

17
Correction:

"... success in the war and the misreporting thereof ..."

Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate) at May 20, 2008 07:40 PM (CDg1b)

18
Rightwingsparkle:

Great idea. I think I'll do that too. Do you have an email address?

Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate) at May 20, 2008 07:41 PM (CDg1b)

19 can't, understand why Bush and McCain don't hammer the MSM daily on this

Cuz they're PR dufuses who don't understand how public opinion is really formed.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at May 20, 2008 07:49 PM (fs+G8)

20 Somehow I got on the McCain campaign mailing list.

ecampaign at gop dot com
;">Rick Davis, McCain Campaign Manager

Posted by: Loren Heal at May 20, 2008 07:54 PM (AyPvz)

21 Damn, Ace.  That's some good writing.  You really should be doing something more important with your life than entertaining us morons.

I have no idea what, because I am a moron.

Posted by: erik at May 20, 2008 08:05 PM (hblvb)

22 The MSM wants us to nuke them from space, just to be sure. I hope we get our folks out of there first.

Posted by: funky chicken at May 20, 2008 08:20 PM (I+jPP)

23
Thanks, Loren.

Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate) at May 20, 2008 08:21 PM (CDg1b)

24

Al Qaeda is just lulling the evil, oppressive American troops into a false sense of security.

-the MSM

Posted by: Darth Randall at May 20, 2008 08:21 PM (oLULt)

25

I think this was a good, classic Ace o' Spades style post. Brought back memories of the Paul Anka integrity kick.

Other than that, I have nothing but contempt for our Quisling media.

Posted by: The Atom Bomb of Loving Kindness at May 20, 2008 08:26 PM (zyrxg)

26 Fuck him!  Turn those machines back on!

Posted by: eman at May 20, 2008 08:27 PM (WWkFI)

27 Hmmmm.

Well it would help if Bush got on the fucking White House soapbox and say something?

Even if he said "my asshole itches" it would be at least *something* topical.

Posted by: memomachine at May 20, 2008 08:58 PM (XlmYx)

28

Where the hell is Beeks?

 

 

Posted by: Randolph Duke at May 20, 2008 09:41 PM (U7vH0)

29 9 Wouldn't it be even nicer if POTUS and the Republican nominee-presumptive made it a point to discuss our successes every day, forcefully and vigorously--in other, providing an alternative to the corrupted MSM and in doing so taking on the MSM head-to-head?
Posted by: Steve (aka Ed Snate
)   That statement assumes that the Republicans are not inept cowards.   Seriously, I am amazed at how the GOP is utterly incapable of communicating over the MSM.  It's like the dinosaur media is some kind of cool clique at high school and the Republicans are the nerds, too scared to pipe up every once in a while.    It's not impolite or unhip to loudly proclaim your successes, especially about the great progress we've made in the war. But hey, Iraq is only the most important policy initiative, so of course let's keep soft-pedaling it and let the Donkey Party and their media enablers shape the story to their advantage.       Amazing.  The GOP has completely reverted back to their pre-1994 Bob Michel timid bullshit.  And they have the nerve to expect us to give the party money or support their weak RINO nonsense.

Posted by: KingShamus at May 20, 2008 10:01 PM (rSqDf)

30

So its the media's fault that hundreds of thousands are dead and that thousands of little fragile iraqi girls are forced into prostitution in the teeming refugee camps of Jordan and Syria?

A weekly bombing short of full out combat is a win from your demented perspective?  Tell me more Winston Smith.

And if the hidden story is we won, can we at least have a hidden withdrawl?

Oh I forgot winning means we get to stay longer.

Proto-nazi fools masturbating over your shallow dolchstosselegende. 

Blame the media, the democrats, the blacks, immigrants or the gays all you want - Iraq is a pure republican product, it is republican governance in action, the true GOP utopia.  W and his legislative junta have gotten every single thing they wanted for 7 years (except ssi privatization).  That is why there is no reliable clean water in Iraq, and Baghdad still doesn't have electricity.  But everyone has an AK-47.  And women are murdered for loving the wrong man.

The democrats have in no way made our battle plans or our armed forces themselves "pc", the democrats have no control over battle plans, army regulations, or ratified treaty based US laws. 

Maliki, Sadr and Iran are playing us for their own interests, waiting for our inevitable withdrawl, 2009 or 2013, sooner or later we will be gone and they will recommence their civil war to settle the sunni shiite scores (as predicted in 2002).

I don't want my brother to die so that Sadr gets more oil revenues and an ambassadorship to Iran.

Posted by: feckless at May 20, 2008 10:09 PM (l1DG9)

31 feckless, you forgot to mention kites.  No cookie for you.

Posted by: eman at May 20, 2008 10:20 PM (WWkFI)

32 Wait, there's a busty Japanese model video?  Tell me more.

Posted by: someone at May 20, 2008 10:35 PM (2z2WN)

33

Reagan went over the heads of the MSM and spoke directly to the people.  He didn't take on the media directly much, but his views were well represented.

Bush cannot do this, he is not comfortable or skilled behind the mic.

McCain is not so good either.

George Bush (41) had a little spat with Rather, but that was man on man.

The last time (I think) the MSM was directly attacked by a sitting administration was Spiro Agnew (Nixon Veep).  He called them "nattering nabobs of negativism" among many other unkind things.

It just made things worse.

Posted by: Robert at May 20, 2008 10:43 PM (Rb4Qc)

34 > W and his legislative junta have gotten every single thing they wanted for 7 years (except ssi privatization).

Don't forget back-alley coat-hanger abortions, mandatory attendance at the Christian church of one's choice, and gulags for people of color. Let your paranoia flow, and know the true power of the Left.

Posted by: The Chap in the Deerstalker Cap at May 20, 2008 11:15 PM (NJa6c)

35 Ralph Peters fuckin rocks!

Posted by: Aubrey at May 20, 2008 11:19 PM (6Yu8l)

36 Hey, Feckless, you forgot to put in the quote marks and link to the original Onion article.  Plagiarism is bad, remember?

Posted by: Manji at May 20, 2008 11:31 PM (4ydkS)

37 Robert: "It [fighting people who buy ink by the barrel] just made things worse."

That was surely true in Nixon's day, but times are changing or have changed. I just don't see how our press could be more biased now (excepting that there was some temporary split allegiance in the Democrat Party that dispersed their typical, one-sided directed fire at the right that could well return). Temporary hiatus? Yeah, but everyone now recognizes the patent bias of the traditional press. The Left knows it but have enjoyed the fruits of their historical dominance. The Right knows it as it has had to suffer the media-created gauntlet. And now the Middle have become aware and are switching sources.

Demographics have changed and media sources have shifted dramatically. A good political machine can now get around the legacy monopoly better than at any point in the past, I dunno, 70 years... if they work at it.

The GOP absolutely must cultivate these other avenues and get nasty while doing it. And by nasty, I mean just tell the truth about what a cauldron of hackery legacy media is. Presenting simple anecdotes as summarized by Peters would do wonders.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at May 20, 2008 11:42 PM (Uy68a)

38 Just to point out what feckless is talking about:

The Dolchstosslegende was the fairytale that the Germans told themselves in the wake of WWI, and that was revived by the Nazis: "Germany was never defeated on the battlefield, but the lack of support on the home front is what caused us to lose the war." The lack of support was considered the Dolchstoss (literally "stab in the back") that cost Germany the victory.

It has become current in left-wing circles like Daily Kos to refer to the conservative narrative of the war as another Dolchstosslegende, because as far as they're concerned we're trying to say the same thing -- that we're winning on the battlefield (which they don't believe) and that a lack of support back home is going to cost us the war (which they also don't believe).

Posted by: Jake Was Here at May 21, 2008 12:18 AM (axb1h)

39 I have just quit watching the lying talking heads and i only read afew parts from the birdcage linners and maybe a few good LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Posted by: Spurwing Plover at May 21, 2008 12:56 AM (GxfQr)

40 hundreds of thousands are dead

Do you know what percentage of the Iraqi population that figure would represent?

Why is al-Jazzera not showing me the hundreds of thousands of graves 7x24?


Posted by: Purple Avenger at May 21, 2008 01:02 AM (fs+G8)

41 A: because you're full of shit

Posted by: Purple Avenger at May 21, 2008 01:02 AM (fs+G8)

42

A. Drivel,

I agree, and I don't.  Anecdotes will occur here and there, but an all-out attack on the media by the candidate, as was suggested above, will not, and should not happen.

Sure it was different in the days of three channels.  It was indeed more of a monopoly - they would give George Will a couple of minutes once a week, and he would talk about baseball.  That was about it for us.

But different too was the degree of bias.  It is much worse now; the bias of Cronkite was much less direct than Rather, and worse today with MTV, CNN or MSNBC.  We agree on this too.

Believe it or not, the media then tried a little to fight bias, and they had some sense of responsibility as a monopoly.  Today, with FOX and Rush, they recognize no need to mitigate the bias.  Today it is designer news: old people go to the legacy news; young people go to MTV or the Daily Show.

So many others go to a place where their views are reinforced and confirmed, or none at all.  It is not that they are unaware of the bias; it is the bias they want.  Nobody could watch Olbermann without knowing this.

To reach me on the subject of media bias, you could put it on FOX, Drudge or various blogs of the right, but I don't need to be reached on the subject of media bias. 

To reach the people that need to know this, you are going to have to get it on some lefty media, and the only way to do that is to buy an ad.  You might get somewhere with a 100 million dollar ad campaign, if you could get someone to run it.  Will CBS run an ad that says “This station is biased” at all?

Candidates will spend 100 mil to get their message out, but they will not start an all-out war with the media.

While it is true that there are many more ways to get conservative info out these days, it is not reasonable to assume that the message will get anywhere that it is needed, unless there is an extreme case like the Rather forged memo's or the flushed Koran.  Even then it is twisted and unlikely to reach those Idol, Oprah and Celtic fans.

Cases in point abound: regular photoshopping of AP Iraq photos, WMD moved out of Iraq, terrorist stringers, planted phony Iraq stories, the TNR fiasco, surge progress, etc.

We know there was a great effort and lots of conversation about these topics at conservative sites and media, but there it sits. Together they are not a pimple on the ass of the MSM, truth be told.

Even if you could get McCain to declare an all-out shooting war with the MSM, they would then have every incentive to respond as powerfully as they can.  And yes, it can get worse.

But, not to worry, both McCain and Obama bask in the light of media attention and would sooner cut off the left one than jeopardize their favored status.

Posted by: Robert at May 21, 2008 06:39 AM (Rb4Qc)

43 For the reasons stated above, McCain would benefit. If I were one of McCain's advisors, I would get on him to make the issue of success in the misreporting thereof by the MSM.

That's not going to happen, not even with RWS's backing. The MSM is still stringing McCain along by being mostly sweet and light with him.

Oh, we've seen the occasional shot across the bow, but that will all change in September. Then they'll go after his old, war-like, sugarbaby-chasing ass with vim and vigor that will leave him speechless.

Posted by: I R A Darth Aggie at May 21, 2008 09:42 AM (1hM1d)

44 In 1968 Uncle Walter declared the war lost because of the disaster called the Tet offensive.  In fact we creamed the North Vietnamese army and eradicated the Viet Cong as a fighting force.  Nixon employed the Vietnamization approach to fighting and by 1974 we had few troops left in Nam and the South Vietnamese army beat General Giap three times in  South Vietnam pushing them back across the DMZ.  In 1975 the liberal Congress with the backing of the media and the left pulled all funding for the war.  Within six months the slaughter started.  Over 2 million dead and another million imprisoned, tortured, etc.  Viet Nam is still a communist country and an economic basketcase.  What will Obama and the democratic Congress do?  If I was an Iraqi I would keep my AK oiled and ready.

Posted by: gordo at May 21, 2008 10:31 AM (8nB5X)

45

"So its the media's fault that hundreds of thousands are dead and that thousands of little fragile iraqi girls are forced into prostitution in the teeming refugee camps of Jordan and Syria?"

What. the hell. are you talking about?

No, the media's fault is in using narrow truths and selected facts to support a pre-decided narrative.  Kind of like the one you seem to share.

"A weekly bombing short of full out combat is a win from your demented perspective?  Tell me more Winston Smith."

No, killing lots of demented insurgent thugs, and having Iraqi citizen-soldiers carry most of the load is a more like winning to me.  How would you go about winning the war?  Oh, right - we can't win.  

If anyone's been in the Victory gin, it's you.

"And if the hidden story is we won, can we at least have a hidden withdrawl?"

Sure.  As soon as you have your hidden celebration of our victory. 

"Oh I forgot winning means we get to stay longer."

Yeah.  The kind of staying we do in Germany, Japan, Korea. 

"Proto-nazi fools masturbating over your shallow dolchstosselegende."

Versus a spittle-flecked adolescent-minded crayon-eater that can't stand the thought of his country doing something right, like toppling a dictator, freeing a people, and standing up to terrorist thuggery.

"Blame the media, the democrats, the blacks, immigrants or the gays all you want - "

The media and democrat party will do just fine.  As far as blacks, immigrants and gays, project all you want.

"Iraq is a pure republican product, it is republican governance in action, the true GOP utopia."

If a FREE Iraq (eventually) is a Republican product in your opinion, I'll take it

"W and his legislative junta have gotten every single thing they wanted for 7 years (except ssi privatization)."

Oh, would that it were so.

"That is why there is no reliable clean water in Iraq, and Baghdad still doesn't have electricity.  But everyone has an AK-47.  And women are murdered for loving the wrong man."

Right.  Iraq was a paradise prior to our involvement. Electricity isn't provided because we refuse to allow it.  Honor killings happen in the Muslim world because of us, not in spite of us.  Whatta maroon. 

"The democrats have in no way made our battle plans or our armed forces themselves "pc", the democrats have no control over battle plans, army regulations, or ratified treaty based US laws."

But not for lack of trying!  Speaking of trying, try to get your head around the phrase 'emboldening the enemy.' 

"Maliki, Sadr and Iran are playing us for their own interests, waiting for our inevitable withdrawl, 2009 or 2013, sooner or later we will be gone and they will recommence their civil war to settle the sunni shiite scores (as predicted in 2002)."

Clearly, that's the case.  It isn't like the Iraqi government is defeating the Sadrist thugs, establish security and allow ordinary citizens to reclaim their lives as free people, and eventually work us out of a job.  And, Lord knows, we oughtn't help them do that.  

And what's this you say about Iran playing us for their own interests? My, that is something new.  I mean, it isn't like they've been in an undeclared low-level war with us for 30 years or anything. 

"I don't want my brother to die so that Sadr gets more oil revenues and an ambassadorship to Iran."

I think that's what the current effort there is trying to avoid.  If all we were trying to do is give Sadr more oil revenues and an ambassadorship to Iran, I think we'd be done. 

And it's probably fair to say you don't want your brother to die at all.  I know I don't, and I don't even know him. Or you.  I'd rather he help kill those that would do us harm.  Wouldn't you?

 

 

Posted by: ronnie dobbs at May 21, 2008 11:05 AM (DZmDA)

46 The Dems can end the war anytime they want. Power of the purse. Google it.


Posted by: Ray Charles at May 21, 2008 11:35 AM (YmPwQ)

47 Robert,

You and I  agree for the most part and, yes, there is certainly risk in agitating the alphabet networks; however, some of your examples reiterate why more than just an occasional public scolding is required. You already noted some glaring examples:

"regular photoshopping of AP Iraq photos, WMD moved out of Iraq, terrorist stringers, planted phony Iraq stories, the TNR fiasco, surge progress, etc."

The standard channels did nothing to almost nothing to cover these events, an abuse so apparent that to trust them on anything would be foolish. You know it. I know it. But not everyone knows it because part of the audience continues to be shielded via these dishonest brokers - or at least those who do not follow politics closely which is still a pretty significant audience. I, nevertheless, see the potential for change as, as I noted previously, other channels evolve. Speeding that process along with public denunciations seems like a rational alternative.

So, this goes back to reaching that audience that prefers the legacy media narrative which you note. In the short term, no, you cannot convince those who would not be convinced - those who lean Left for political reasons. However, given a regular drip of media bias will change some minds. Eventually. And, no, a media buy of any sort on legacy channels to emphasize their suckitude is not going to fly.

What could be tried is regular internet postings illustrating bias via a GOP news channel. (We have that now with surrogate bloggers, but make it more official and regular.) Those in power should readily use their public speaking engagements to work in how the bias has seeped into legacy media coverage. Politicians could intermittently refuse access to certain individuals or the organizations who employ them and make a public stink about why they are being denied. Others who remain honest, even if critical, could be rewarded with more access, better seating, convenient appointment times, special interviews, etc. These are just top-o-the-head scattershots and certainly other tactics could be tried.

The point is that by attacking this issue from various angles, you can, and eventually will, wear down the blockade. Those legacy agents being "mistreated" will have to cover this "extremism" because, well, they're now "victims." Their reticence to give ink on the issue of addressing their bias will give way to their need to play the victim card as they get shut out and publicly embarrassed (assuming they can still be/feel shamed). And they'll spin it as oppressive government, so it will get covered. It would then be the duty of those representatives and their spokespeople to address that spin quickly and bluntly over and over like all propagandists know to do. Fight fire with fire.

In fact, and this is a bit off course and a quick observation, but it seems that one of the outcomes of the pro-communists/socialist/radicalist 60's movement was the adoption of using more propagandist techniques to win the intellectual war. It was slow, tedious, but I think now we might note, effective. Those lessons of repeating the lie have been well entrenched in our media centers quite a few members from which were members from the age of change this nation endured. Socialists, perhaps the most notorious like Cronkite, encouraged the younger generation to follow in his footsteps. And they have and now inhabit authoritative slots in the media hierarchy. We are in a propaganda war, only conservatives tend not to want to engage in it as much. They'll have to, whatever the risk, if they are going to survive. Nations can evolve too far for the pendulum to correct.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at May 21, 2008 02:59 PM (Uy68a)

48

You have some good ideas there A.D., and I can only hope that such a large-scale sustained effort can be mounted.

But it is still going to require something equivalent to a 50-100 million dollar ad campaign - the cost of a Presidential candidate, a new product or a new sports league.  It takes that much these days to get a message out, but many people doing many things can be substituted for money.

But I am not so optimistic as you.  What I see is that the left has captured most of the new media: Yahoo, Google; and key leaders of new industry: Gates, Cuban, etc.

My suggestion would be to take on issues, one at a time, and not attack the media directly.

 

The other thought is to pool some funds and buy CBS.

 

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