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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wow. ABC is now openly shilling for Obama's policies, as opposed to the slightly more subtle reporting they've done for the last couple years.

9 comments:

Chris A said...

Yeah, I saw this yesterday. Of course, this shows us how far off we've gotten, but it's a smarter strategy than Bush's. I'm not justifying it, just analyzing it.

The Bush people did everything secretly. They had media people on their payroll like Armstrong Williams to push their propaganda. (The Pentagon did the same thing.) And they also gave out talking points to many "conservative" voices in the media on a regular (probably weekly) basis.

Obama does the talking point stuff too - to what extent is not clear yet, but by being overt about his propaganda campaign it gives the appearance of his being harmless. And he is the media darling, and according to one guy in the media "sort of god". So he has escaped scrutiny for now, and actually does have "political capital" to spend, so he can afford to do radical things like this.

Mike said...

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001852/

interesting...

Darius said...

Interesting, but I believe a little different. Fox was just doing what any news media would love to do: getting an exclusive. No problem there. What ABC appears to be doing is actually promoting Obama's policies.

Chris A said...

Wow. Just watched that video. How soon we forget. I think its pretty much the same thing.

But I still say the Obama media strategy is more overt, just because many people don't consider Fox News a legitimate news organization. Whether you agree with them or not, a Neocon president on Fox News is sort of preaching to the choir. ABC, although probably no less biased, is one of the original "big 3". It holds a special place in the minds of many Americans.

If you ask me, they've all been highly compromised by commercial and/or political interests. You can't even watch the evening news without being inundated with pharmaceutical industry propaganda - and I'm not just talking about the commercials.

Plus the right is just itching to get some dirt on Obama. They don't care if Bush did basically the same thing if it will help them politically. Some of them have disowned Bush after the fact anyway, or at the very least they have distanced themselves from him.

Chris A said...

Here is another interesting story about the Obama propaganda machine. This is nothing new by the way, and I'm pretty sure Bush & Co. did similar stuff.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gd6fq5wCsORik8OmMd_sGqXIFs8wD990LNJG0

Chris A said...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gd6fq5wCsORik8OmMd_sGqXIFs8wD990LNJG0

I think I cut part of it off the first time.

Chris A said...

Argh! Anyway, the title is "White House solicited question on Iran from writer"

Darius said...

I have to laugh at the idea that Bush's team planted questions. All one had to do was watch a few of those news conferences to know that the media was largely hostile to Bush. In fact, didn't he ban one or two reporters for being overly antagonistic? I don't see why Obama has to plant questions, he's already in a room full of supporters. 90% of those reporters worship the ground he walks.

Chris A said...

Oh I don't know that Bush planted questions. That's not what I meant. I just meant they were crafty like that. I wouldn't put it past them, but I don't know that they did exactly that. But they did effectively plant or co-opt people in media. Armstrong Williams is a prime example.

And let's not forget that Bush had his easy days with the press. For a time after 9/11 you couldn't ask the president a tough question. Even on the run up to the Iraq war, there were very little actual journalism going on. Most of the media had reporters embedded into units, making it impossible to personally separate themselves from the situation and report objectively. In those days, there was a lot of cheerleading going on. And all the Americans gathered around the tube to watch the "light show" on the night all the collateral damage was being done. Shock and awe. Sorry, Iraqis. We thought your leader had WMDs...or that he may have been linked to al Qaeda...or that he was treating you worse than we ended up treating you. Our bad.

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