The Bush Administration's attack on the media is surprising after all the media has done for them. Without the media's help, there would have been no President George W. Bush and no Iraq War.
" I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office." --George W. Bush, 1989
Evidently, a media creation is all you need, if you have the mainstream media on your side. The media's support of Bush paid off when Florida's legitimate election process was halted, and the Supreme Court selected George W. Bush to be President of the United States (A day that will live in infamy).
" "The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent." -- Gore Vidal, novelist, 1991
Now the Bush Administration and the mainstream media are teaming up on a new business venture the Iran War. A recent article by Mike Whitney on OpEdNews.com (3/11/06) described the media blitz:
" Vice President Cheney warned of "meaningful consequences" if Iran refused to comply with international demands to stop its nuclear program.
" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice claimed, "We face no greater challenge from a single country than Iran."
" Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, "[Iran is] currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq. We know it, and it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment"
" UN Ambassador "Mad Dog" Bolton advocated a "vigorous response" to Iran's nuclear ambition.
" President Bush stated, "Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. The most destabilizing thing that can happen in this region and in the world is for Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
All these statements were made within a 48-hour period, then repeated by the mainstream media and amplified through the right-wing's giant propaganda megaphone talk radio. What they don't say is:
" [An IAEA inspection team] rummaged through Iran's nuclear sites for the past two years in the most thorough examination of any country in the history of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
" [Iran has permitted] 'go anywhere, see anything' inspections that allowed officials from the IAEA to investigate any location or facility they felt was suspicious.
" The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) predicted that it would take 10 years for Iran to build a nuclear weapon [even if they wanted one].
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