The Bush propoganda machine rolls on

Frank Rich doesn't invoke his name in his Sunday essay coming out tomorrow (I'll post a link as soon as the Times posts it on their site), but Joseph Goebbels would be amazed by the blitzkrieg of propoganda unleashed by the administration.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the administration has effectively built a network of "journalists" they can call on to parrot White House talking points and lead the cheers for Bush & Co's cynical campaigns. Give them the loud megaphone of FoxNews and Sinclair (and CNN's passive participation in the three ring circus), and you have propoganda machine that would have put their German forbears to admiring shame.

...[P]haps the most fascinating Williams TV appearance took place in December 2003, the same month that he was first contracted by the government to receive his payoffs. At a time when no one in television news could get an interview with Dick Cheney, Mr. Williams, of all "journalists," was rewarded with an extended sit-down with the vice president for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a nationwide owner of local stations affiliated with all the major networks. In that chat, Mr. Cheney criticized the press for its coverage of Halliburton and denounced "cheap shot journalism" in which "the press portray themselves as objective observers of the passing scene when they are obviously not objective."

This is a scenario out of "The Manchurian Candidate." Here we find Mr. Cheney criticizing the press for a sin his own government was at that same moment signing up Mr. Williams to commit. The interview is broadcast by the same company that would later order its ABC affiliates to ban Ted Koppel's "Nightline" recitation of American casualties in Iraq and then propose showing an anti-Kerry documentary, "Stolen Honor," under the rubric of "news" in prime time just before Election Day. (After fierce criticism, Sinclair retreated from that plan.) Thus the Williams interview with the vice president, implicitly presented as an example of the kind of "objective" news Mr. Cheney endorses, was in reality a completely subjective, bought-and-paid-for fake news event for a broadcast company that barely bothers to fake objectivity and both of whose chief executives were major contributors to the Bush-Cheney campaign. The Soviets couldn't have constructed a more ingenious or insidious plot to bamboozle the citizenry.

Meanwhile the White House has put the Williams scandal (and it is -- or should be -- a scandal, probably an illegal one) completely on the doorstep of Rod Paige and the Dept. of Education.

Right. Using tax payer dollars to sell Bush's agenda is a tested way of doing business for this administration.

Via Josh Marshall, the Times brings us this heart warming tale of pressuring government workers to lie on behalf of the ruling party.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 - Over the objections of many of its own employees, the Social Security Administration is gearing up for a major effort to publicize the financial problems of Social Security and to convince the public that private accounts are needed as part of any solution.

The agency's plans are set forth in internal documents, including a "tactical plan" for communications and marketing of the idea that Social Security faces dire financial problems requiring immediate action.

Social Security officials say the agency is carrying out its mission to educate the public, including more than 47 million beneficiaries, and to support President Bush's agenda.

"The system is broken, and promises are being made that Social Security cannot keep," Mr. Bush said in his Saturday radio address. He is expected to address the issue in his Inaugural Address.

But agency employees have complained to Social Security officials that they are being conscripted into a political battle over the future of the program. They question the accuracy of recent statements by the agency, and they say that money from the Social Security trust fund should not be used for such advocacy.

"Trust fund dollars should not be used to promote a political agenda," said Dana C. Duggins, a vice president of the Social Security Council of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 50,000 of the agency's 64,000 workers and has opposed private accounts.

Deborah C. Fredericksen of Minneapolis, who has worked for the Social Security Administration for 31 years, said, "Many employees believe that the president and this agency are using scare tactics to promote private accounts."

While outraged -- and wondering if we will every get the bad governance genie back into the bottle that this corrupt administration has uncorked -- I am no longer surprised. Increasing my outrage still further.

Read Josh's piece. He also has a link where you can lodge a complaint with SSA.