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Indybay Feature

Ex-Bush spokesman: White House fed war propaganda to a "complicit" media

by wsws (reposted)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 :In a stunning blow to what very little remains of the Bush administrations political credibility, the presidents former press secretary Scott McClellan has published a book indicting the White House for launching an unnecessary war in Iraq based on false propaganda.
Even more telling, particularly coming from an official who was in charge of dealing with the press, is McClellans harsh indictment of the American media as a servile and willing accomplice in this process.

If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq, he writes. The collapse of the administrations rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. ... In this case, the liberal media didnt live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.

Significantly, in their main articles on McClellans book, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post, which together played the most influential roles in selling the war, chose to quote this passage.

Elsewhere, McClellan describes the press as complicit enablers in the White Houses carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval in the drive to war. It was guilty, he says, of spreading distortions, half-truths, and occasionally outright lies.

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by steppenRazor
Sort of puts the old death dirge to the old 'liberal media' myth, doesn't it? If anyone can remember the media coverage in the run up to the Iraq War (Americans seem to suffer from Chronic Short Term Memory loss), it was all WMDS, mushroom clouds and eminent biological horrors from a nation that had been under draconian sanctions for ten years and would have been doing good to launch a model rocket. Yet, with the White House spin, they convinced millions of Americans that the model rocket was on the way, could be here in 30 minutes and the ULTIMATE EVIL was just around the corner. How did the Amazing Bushco pull off this Herculean feat? Why, with the help of ALL media in America! You couldn't turn on a television, tune in a radio or read a newspaper that didn't have the nightmare of terrorism spread all over it. The American Media was like a bunch of Labradors waiting for the White House to throw the next stick. And Americans bought it all. hook. line and sinker.
As the character 'V' so eloquently phrased it 'If you are looking for the reason for all of this, you need look no further than the nearest mirror.'
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