by tony pierce, 112
you can debate whether BushCo knew that Osama was determined to strike inside the US a month before 9/11, or if they knew that there were no ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda, or if they knew that Iraq didn’t have WMDs,
but theres one thing that is not in debate about this administration: they are shameless propagandists who will stop at nothing to use and manipulate the press in illegal and immoral ways making whores out of the so-called fourth estate during this era of widespread and wanton corruption.
so since we know that the Bush administration has paid off pro journalists, a gay male hooker wannabe journalist, and now iraqi newspapers
of course they’re probably paying off bloggers, and/or funding Right Wing consortums – why wouldnt they?
it’s easier than producing the shit themselves.
this week the LA Times broke the story that the U.S. Military had hired several companies to carry out “strategic communications” in foreign countries with heavy US Military presence, including a company once called Iraqex, but now called Lincoln Group. The Times discovered that it turned out that many of those communications involved paying Iraqi newspapers to run US propaganda, and yesterday the Pentagon admitted the Times was right, that the US was back in the propaganda biz.
of course this doesnt mean that your tax dollars are being used to pay for Bush/Cheney/Rove’s messages to be printed in Iraqi papers… it means that BushCo allocates billions to the military, they give $100 million contract to Lincoln Group and then they pay off the Iraqi papers to run the stories.
oh wait, i guess that does mean that your tax dollars are being spent on propaganda.
and i guess it also means that the President no longer feels that “our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet.” A belief he had this January in the wake of the Armstrong Williams scandal where his Cabinet was caught paying off the conservative to write pro-No Child Left Behind stories.
so it got me thinking, if BushCo has at least $100 million to spend on name-changing media spinning company in Iraq… do they have $3.5 million left over to spend on a name-changing media spinning company in America?
if RoveCo had no problem funding conservative journalists in the mainstream press to reward/encourage them to continue to write pro-Bush columns, it seems to me that $3.5 million to secure 70 big-time bloggers via multi-year contracts would not only be in line with the history of this administration, but a bargain at twice the price.
now im not saying that Charles Johnson and Roger L. Simon are in bed with the Bush Administration, or the Instapundit. those guys are fair and balanced. any time the Republicans make horrible mistakes, the first people to point them out are Little Green Footballs and Professor Reynolds.
but i am saying that in light of the latest example of Propaganda from Above – Pajamas Media is starting to look fishier and fishier.
Johnson and Reynolds ran super tight ships at LGF and Instapundit.com – why is Pajamas Media such a clusterfuck of sloppiness and confusion? Could it be that its a reflection of their donors: BushCo? Could it be because Johnson et al have long-term guaranteed contracts that has nothing to do with ad revenue, but instead has to do with keeping the Administration happy with pro-Bush coverage, that they simply dont care about the details of their goofy site – just keep it rolling and keep it Right.
And why did Tim Blair bail out once he came to America and saw OSM/Pajamas up close. Did he see the puppet strings and piss his pants?
And what about Ann Althouse? As someone who grew up in IL from K-12 I know Wisconsin very well, yes it’s a relatively inexpensive place to live, but as a conservative law professor at Wisconsin, what could be so bad about years of guaranteed ad revenue from Pajamas Media? Is the money that dirty?
And why is it that the only person that they could get to deliver their Keynote was Judy Miller — and why would they pick Judy Miller? Because they knew she wouldnt squeal on them?
These are the wispers that I would not want to have hissed around me if i was writing a blog with my name on it.
I would not want to be the next Armstrong Williams or Jeff Gannon.
I would not want to be the next whore in the stable of Pimp Daddy Rove.
If I thought that the LA Times was wrong about their coverage about the “news” scandal in Iraq, I would feel weird defending the propaganda like folks like the VodkaPundit of Pajamas Media, ProteinWisdom, and the Jawa Report because, well, maybe it would make people really think that I was on the take. She doth protest too much, etc.
I mean, come on fellas, defending propaganda? What’s next — defending torture and secret prisons?
For all I know, and I mean this seriously, Pajamas Media and every single Right Wing Blogger could be totally on the up-and-up. And for all I know the entire Bloggersphere is completely legit, sincere, and in no way the press release for the White House.
But BushCo did pay off pro journalists, and got caught.
BuschCo did sneak in a gay male hooker into the White House press corps and got caught.
BushCo did create videopropaganda disguised as news and sent it to tv news stations and got caught.
BushCo did leak classified information to the press regarding a CIA agent, lied about it under oath and got caught.
And now BushCo got caught paying off Iraqi newspapers to run “news” stories secretly written by the US Military.
I would not want to be supporting this administration right now Particularily on topics like Propaganda if i was being paid by a Right Wing Angel Investor who very well could have an intimate relationship with people like the Lincoln Group, Iraqex, or HalliburtonCo.
Not because it’s illegal or immoral – but because if it ever got out that i was a whore for this trainwreck of a Presidency, a mouthpiece who had a pricetag, an alleged blogger who intentionally chose not to write certain things because i was being paid by The Man for PR,
then nobody would ever trust what I had to say ever again.
yes i believe that if this administration has $100 million to spend on propaganda overseas, that it has a few million to spend corralling willing and loyal bloggers here in america.
the only question is, when will we find out who those bloggers on the take are, and what will happen to their reputations once they’re outted.
developing…
pajamas is still using osm.org and the O graphic – why? + matt w + matt g + buzzmachine