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THE MEDIA HAS FOLLOWED
& NOT INFORMED POPULAR OPINION
DAVID HORSEY*
BY BOB WILLIAMS
Al Gore never claimed to have invented the Internet,
but the media did (and still does) a terrible job of correcting the
record and helped his opponents go after him as untrustworthy.
The same media that perpetuates this charge on no evidence
but Republican Party spin (by never correcting the record and
sometimes still quoting, without comment, people who repeat it),
is now finally forced to notice facts about the Presidential Spin
ners which should have been clear for a long time.
This administration is a masterful public relations factory
and they have depended on U.S. newspapers and corporate air
waves franchises to go along with woeful underestimation of our
intelligence.
George Bush told Bob Woodward (Bush At War), “I do
not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing
about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to
me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody
an explanation."
Now he wants to establish again, by fiat, “The President
considers the matter closed."
This has worked before.
It worked when he refused to discuss or have govern
ment agencies reveal his shameful military service record.
He has refused to allow the Security Exchange Commission to
release the records of its aborted investigation into charges of
insider trading when he sold his Harken Energy stock just before
it tanked, and his administration has gone to unprecedented
lengths to prevent the release of records of the apparently
considerable influence of Enron’s Ken Lay exerted on formation
and implementation of national energy policy.
The body investigating 9/11 says the relevant govern
ment agencies are not cooperating in providing the information
it needs to assign responsibility and thus prevent a recurrence.
The Environmental Protection Agency report had references to
“global warming” just edited out.
There is a longer list of coverups by decree from what
many commentators claim is the most secretive administration
in many years.
We have had many revelations of how far these men
(and Condy Rice) have gone to spin the facts and personally
write the headlines, of how they have successfully forced the
media to abandon unfavorable stories by labeling them “politic
ally motivated allegations against a very popular President.”
One such very clear story that just died at birth was the
deceptive claim about the aircraft carrier landing, an event that
both proclaimed the end of the Iraq war and established the
kickoff of the Presidential Image Control Campaign Season.
The claim was that the President had to take a jet
because the carrier was out of helicopter range. The facts are:
the carrier was well within range, was actually moved further out
to allow them to claim it was “more than 30 miles off the coast,”
was kept moving in circles so it would come no closer, and was
turned so the cameras would not see the San Diego skyline as
the President bounced around, helmet tucked under his arm,
and as he spoke.
The media let him off once again on that one, following
and not informing popular opinion.
Now the President hopes to quiet things again (to quote
the BBC) by “assigning blame to his CIA Director” and having
him “fall on his sword."
But despite Bush’s wistful thinking, it is too obvious that
the problem is not who left the forged evidence in the State of
the Union speech, but rather, who put it into the speech in the
first place, in spite of the widespread knowledge it was false.
Colin Powell didn't use it in his own following speech to
the United Nations because, as he said about other and similarly
false claims he was under Bush’s pressure to make, “This is
B.S. I won't say it!”
What is in danger of being forgotten however in the
current media fear of “going too far" is:
-Bob Woodward reported that the very night of 9/11,
Rumsfeld suggested the day’s events might provide an excuse
for going after Saddam Hussein.
-There might have been leaks from our intelligence
agencies right along that they were under pressure to provide
evidence of WMD and of links between Al Qaeda and Iraq.
(A New York Times story from early January of this year
is headed, ‘Split at CIA & FBI On Iraq to Al Qaeda’ and says in
the second paragraph of this long article, “Some analysts at the
CIA have complained that senior administration officials have
exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about
Iraq, particularly about its possible links to terrorism, in order to
strengthen their political argument for war, government officials
said.")
(Don Rumsfeld created a Pentagon intelligence agency
apparently because he wasn’t getting what he wanted from the
established ones.)
- Every specific claim of evidence about WMDs by
Bush, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld and company has been shown
to be false on the ground or has proven to be unverifiable.
-No WMD have been found, though the media has
been negligent in making this clear to the perhaps third of
Americans who believe otherwise, and it is almost certain that
even if they exist in any form, they were in no form or danger
of being used.
Our government doesn’t even believe they were there,
it seems clear, since their “disappearance” has not impelled
increased security alerts. One might think we would be on
“Cherry Red Emergency Status” until these elusive weapons
were found, if anyone in power were truly worried about them.
Now the spokespersons for Bush are making the talk
show rounds trying to convince us that the President's intent
ionally deceptive language, “according to British intelligence
reports” was “technically accurate” even though they all knew
it was based on forged documents.
The media should take this opportunity to reclaim its
role as questioners of attempts to mislead the people, and as
critics of any obvious falsehood that is put forth for purely politi
cal purpose.
It is not too late to have truly informative media which
recognize the ethical requirement that a free society depends
on a well informed citizenry.
The role of media as a PR wing of the politically power
ful should now be under suspicion as never before. The most
powerful country in the world should have a media at least as
great as the British or Israeli press. Our democracy is in the
balance.
Bob Williams lives and teaches in Hood River.
"David Horsey, editorial cartoonist for the Seattle Post
Intelligencer, has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for 2003.
He was awarded his first Pulitzer in 1999.
ALLEY CAT ESPRESSO
DAD
BY ANNA MYERS
1008 Commercial in scenic, downtown Astoria
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URIAH HULSEY
I
My dad was in Vietnam a little over a year. During his
time there he was exposed to Agent Orange. My dad got sick
ten years after he left Vietnam.
In August of 1984 Mom told me that Dad said I was
the best present he ever got. When I was 4 months old, my
dad became terminally ill My dad held me for the last time
13 months later — just days before he passed away
I have very few memories of my father, except for
what my mother tells me. He died because no one checked
on him even after my mother made arrangements with the
Veterans Affairs to have a nurse check on him He was a
victim of the Veterans Affairs system
Eighteen years later I have become a victim of
the same system. I have been fighting for “Helpless Child"
(disability) benefits for the last year. I have these disabilities
because my father was exposed to “Agent Orange" and other
chemicals during the war Yet no one at the VA is willing to
help me,
The VA is a bungled system because it is controlled by
our own government with a mission that seems to be in contra
diction to helping vets and their families Why would people
want to join the military when they can expect no support from
our government when they need it most?
In conclusion, I think either the government should help
our vets and their families with more support or turn to a social
ized medical system to support everyone who needs help. We
must take care of our own people.
Anna Myers is a 2003 graduate of Astoria High School
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