Saturday, February 19, 2005
Covert Propaganda
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than the White House paying journalists (like Armstrong Williams) to promote their failed policies (No Child Left Behind), along comes Gannon-gate.
It turns out that a fake reporter who goes by the fake name "Jeff Gannon" (real name: Jim Guckert), who has no journalistic credentials at all (except for an association with a fake right-wing "news" organization called Talon), and who runs a gay male escort service on the side, has had amazing access to the president, who called on him during the last press conference. Here was Gannon's objective, unbiased question: "How are you going to work with [Democrats] who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" That question is so slanted it almost makes Fox News look fair and balanced by comparison.
Frank Rich reflects on the unbelievable White House propaganda campaign:
This doesn't even count all of the set-up "town hall meetings" that are filled only with those who agree with Bush's plan and where audience members are given pre-scripted questions to ask. Here's my pre-scripted question for the real journalists to ask:
"How did an individual working for a partisan organization, with no previous journalistic experience, with very public connections to an male escort service, and with very public pornographic pictures posted all over the internet get clearance to obtain a press pass?"
The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'
It turns out that a fake reporter who goes by the fake name "Jeff Gannon" (real name: Jim Guckert), who has no journalistic credentials at all (except for an association with a fake right-wing "news" organization called Talon), and who runs a gay male escort service on the side, has had amazing access to the president, who called on him during the last press conference. Here was Gannon's objective, unbiased question: "How are you going to work with [Democrats] who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" That question is so slanted it almost makes Fox News look fair and balanced by comparison.
Frank Rich reflects on the unbelievable White House propaganda campaign:
By my count, "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist" (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news. Of these six, two have been syndicated newspaper columnists paid by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the administration's "marriage" initiatives. The other four have played real newsmen on TV. Before Mr. Guckert and Armstrong Williams, the talking head paid $240,000 by the Department of Education, there were Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia. Let us not forget these pioneers - the Woodward and Bernstein of fake news. They starred in bogus reports ("In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting," went the script) pretending to "sort through the details" of the administration's Medicare prescription-drug plan in 2004. Such "reports," some of which found their way into news packages distributed to local stations by CNN, appeared in more than 50 news broadcasts around the country and have now been deemed illegal "covert propaganda" by the Government Accountability Office.
This doesn't even count all of the set-up "town hall meetings" that are filled only with those who agree with Bush's plan and where audience members are given pre-scripted questions to ask. Here's my pre-scripted question for the real journalists to ask:
"How did an individual working for a partisan organization, with no previous journalistic experience, with very public connections to an male escort service, and with very public pornographic pictures posted all over the internet get clearance to obtain a press pass?"
The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'
