Revealed: Behind The Scenes Of Operation Enduring Propaganda

In the wake of former WH press secretary Scott McClellan's revelations, especially concerning the traditional media's shameful neglect of their watchdog role in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, whereby reporters were essentially "complicit enablers" of the Bush administration’s push for war, some reporters and anchor persons have come out to corroborate such revelations (particularly concerning the roles of corporate hacks), while others remain in their self-deluded ivory towers of denial.

In any case, my (not-so-rhetorical) question is: is there anything about the MSM's subservience to the Bushies and the right-wing noise machine new here?

Answer: Not. At. All.

And then some.

In fact, virtually every blog of the progressive blogosphere has commented/criticized the traditional media's subservience and dutyful stenographism to the Bush administration over the last seven years or so (including, of course, APOV).

So in essence, what McClelland is doing is fully confirming everything that was suspected to be going on behind closed doors.

For instance: Bush secretly declassified the "cooked" 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq for Cheney and Libby to anonymously disclose to reporters.

Or this: McClelland claims that he was fooled into publicly exonerating Cheney and Rove concerning Plamegate, which turned out to be (of course) false.

Or this: the Iraq war was sold through a sophisticated political propaganda campaign by the Bush administration, which aimed at manipulating sources of public opinion and downplaying the major reason for going to war.

Which reminds me of this little post I wrote last year, titled Operation Enduring Propaganda - allow me to indulge with a few excerpts:

While being assaulted by the continuous exposures of scandalous abuses of power, politicizing of the apparels of government and erasing the separation of church and state, along with an increasing crescendo of calls for impeachment proceedings, the besieged Puppet Presidency and Unitary Regency have unleashed in recent weeks their true "surge" plans: unrelenting blitzkrieg-like, coordinated propaganda counter-strikes to sell the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while making the case for more war in the Middle-East, through it all playing on the fear and insecurity of Americans.

(...)

Hence their current Operation Enduring Propaganda, which is of course all about the politics of fear and ignorance.

Let us review how it has been playing out so far, shall we?

Step One - Keep reminding them of the threat posed by the Bogey Man: The convenient specter of terrorism has proven to be the perfect tool to keep the public cowed in fear - the modus operandi here being "all we have to fear, we must" (...).

Step Two - Spin your current disastrous wars into successes: (...) Use Step One to keep justifying the Iraq War, while parading false experts all over the MSM to sell its "growing successes" and the "steady progress" in rebuilding Iraq, falsely branding said "experts" as "Bush critics" or "war critics" in the process so as to enhance their (non-existent) credibility - and make sure to hide the fact that they contradict their own research while dishing out the propaganda. Do the same thing with regards to Afghanistan - it is as much a part of the War against Global Terrorism(TM) and therefore must be sustained at all costs, those who beg to differ be damned. After all, facts do not matter here: it is the maintenance of the fear and ignorance of the populace which is of prime concern (see Steps Four and Five).

Step Three - Ignore, attack or ridicule all those who hold up the truth of the matter: Experts are contradicting your decisions or your arguments against pulling out your troops? They are saying that your actions have made things worse or that your strategies are not working? Ignore them, attack them, smear them, make them retire, dismiss them, punish them or simply fire them. Better yet, blame them for the failures - it is, after all, their choice of having enlisted and thus should stop complaining and do their job. And what about all those other, "regular" citizens who are likewise criticizing your wars of choice? Ridicule, demonize and/or attack them - anything that will marginalize them in the eyes of the fearful and ignorant public at large.

Step Four - Call for more wars: Because the Enemy is all encompassing, spreading his evil tentacles everywhere (at least, that is how the mantra goes), keep rattling the war sabers to include nearby "unfriendly" countries as collaborators of the Enemy - use anything and everything to support/justify potential war with those "Enemy collaborators", the facts be damned of course. Iran and Syria are two striking examples of this - after all, this is a War on Global Terrorism(TM) and you are "either with us, or against us" (...)

Step Five - Ask for increases in intelligence and military means to fight the Enemy: To have full control and wage war in the struggle to establish empire, you need all the tools you can get. The Patriot Act, the Military Commission's Act are but two examples. Keep clamoring and asking for more. On the military side of things, you have to keep the "surge" going while preparing/readying for more war (see Step Four) (...)

Step Six - Recycle through Steps One to Five: This one is self-explanatory.

(...) Such is the way I envision the state of affairs to be in the decades to come - unless, that is, Operation Enduring Propaganda gets to be roundly and permanently defeated here and now.

As always, it will be up to us to meet the challenge ... or not.

Interestingly, here are two other bits of news which demonstrate to us that Operation Enduring Propaganda keeps on rolling, as strong as ever:

A) McClelland and his book are currently being debunked/spun/minimized/ridiculed/character assasinated by the White House, the right-wing noise machine and the subservient propagandist traditional media;

B) McClelland is now warning us to take the Bush administration’s claims on Iran very seriously and be skeptical about them.

On a related note - there is yet another report that the Bush administration plans to attack Iran before the end of its term ... which is of course being denied.

And thus rolls on Operation Enduring Propaganda ...

Yes - McClelland deserves a good share of the blame for his participatory mendacity in fooling the U.S. "folks at large" while he was WH Press Secretary, as much as he warrants condemnation for his cowardice in waiting until now to put forth his admissions and revelations.

Nevertheless, his warnings should be heeded.

(Cross-posted from APOV)