I’ve written on this issue until my face is blue. And, a number of others have as well. You are all witnessess to a fascist movement in the United States. Continue to bare witness…
Read this article by Laurie Spivak entitled The Conservative Marketing Machine.
Then, stroll on over to See the Forest and read this post. Here’s an excerpt:
America’s political elite live in an information bubble. It’s like the Right has set up a “conventional wisdom machine” that is targeted at opinion leaders, legislators, their staffs and the circles they associate with. Heavily-funded right-wing organizations work to infiltrate their message into the information that these “leadership elite” receive. They achieve this in many ways. One way, of course, is that they have their very own bought-and-paid-for media outlets like Fox, the Washington Times, and most of AM radio. But they also have worked to get the more mainstream opinion leaders under their influence. Influential columnists and reporters receive large speaking fees from corporations and trade associations. They get free “retreats” where they learn about “market solutions.” And everyone is certainly afraid of the shame and humiliation should they become the target of the character assassination machine. That acts as a powerful incentive to toe the line and reject “marginalized” information sources — people like Scott Ritter and Michael Moore, constituents complaining about election fraud, and Progressive online news sources or blogs (those terrible things that leaked the exit polls) — and stick to “credible” sources.The Armstrong Williams scandal shows us the amounts of money involved in, and the “reach” of this effort. I mean, Armstrong Williams? If Armstrong Williams is getting $240,000 directly from the government, imagine what mainstream opinion leaders are getting from the big-money corporate trade associations, right-wing think tanks, etc. — over (speaking fees, travel, gifts) and under (bribes, like Williams got) the table.
The amounts of money the Right is putting into their outside-the-election-process propaganda effort — over $300 million a year just for the think tank/advocacy communication infrastructure — ought to warn us that most of the traditional channels through which “the leadership elite” get their info are likely targets of this effort.
Marginalizing sources like blogs is one way to scare Washington types away from the info they contain. Reading blogs is a way to break through that bubble.
Always keep in mind that the machinations over “Rathergate” grasped upon by the right and promoted so heavily by right-wing radio and parrotted by bloggers who listen to that radio (Instapundit, Powerline, et al.) is all about power. It has nothing to do with justice, or facts. If it was about facts, the right-wing would be clamouring for the head of the person who wrote the memo. But, they are silent in regard to that particular point. They aren’t even actually accussing Rather of creating the memo, only of using it for political gain. So, who created the memo? Therein lies the truth. But, the truth is secondary to the political profit of manipulating the truth, keeping it hidden, and proffering the party line: the liberal media is not to be trusted. Never mind that the media is no where near liberal. And, Dan Rather a liberal? Hah!
It is all an effort in controlling media. All media. Through intimidation, money and propaganda. And Rather is the poster child for what happens when you don’t play with the right-wing machine.
All of this is about “liberal bias”, because, supposedly, bias is verbotten in the mainstream media. At least, that is the argument given by the right. Problem is, the media is full of bias, from all sides. Right-wing radio is biased, to the right. So, where’s all the outrage? Fox News is biased, to the right. Where’s all the outrage? If bias is not permitted in the media, then why is right-wing bias okay?
The asnwer to that question separates democracy from fascism.
The right-wing is nearly silent over the Armstrong Williams affair as well. Why? Because it is absolute proof of the existence of the right-wing deception machine, and they are all complicit.
I had a discussion via e-mail with a well known and influential conservative blogger who is in a place to comment upon the legality of Armstrong’s actions, and said blogger declined to comment upon it other than to say it was not a good thing. (In a manner of words.) That was it.
We all know that if a liberal pundit were caught taking money from the Liberal Administration, the conservatives would be calling for heads to roll. A grand jury would be forming as we speak.
The Armstrong Williams issue is important. Combined with Rathergate, it is proof that the right-wing is making moves to control the media in the US.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Read Digby on this issue as well… The veil has been lifted.
