MEDIA MESSAGES GETTING US READY FOR WAR ON IRAN

June 18th, 2008 - by: danny

THE RIGHT IS READY: 6 Days of Hell: the Coming War with Iran

MEDIA: SAM GARDINER—THE WHITE HIOUSE MESSENGING ON IRAN

We know from Scott McClellan, the former White House Spokesman, in his recent book, What Happened, that President Bush insists on discipline in messaging. Although the publics on both sides of the Atlantic have gotten to the point of heavily discounting what he says, the President’s desire for control can give us a sense of the thrust of policy. This is certainly true with respect to Iran.

Iran Themes. The White House has changed direction on the main sin of Iran in the past few weeks. For almost three months, Iran’s most evilness was represented in its involvement in “killing US soldiers” in Iraq. The entire top leadership of the Administration was on this message.

At one point, Admiral Mullen the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that there would be a major presentation and showing-of-evidence by General Patraeus in Baghdad. We were to see this evidence “next week.” That was six weeks ago.

Although we don’t know the details yet, it is fairly evident the Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki objected to this line of argument. The US message may have caused the two trips to Iran – one by an Iraqi delegation and one by Maliki himself. The US position may have pushed Maliki to announce that Iraq would never be used as a launching ground for an attack against another country of the region.

Iraqi objection my have moved the White House into its new theme. Iran is now evil because of its efforts to enrich uranium. In the President’s recent trip to Europe he sounded the theme at every stop. It’s enrichment and movement toward a bomb. For the most part, European leaders bought into his message.

When the White House does a strategic communications analysis, different audiences are separated for different messages. The evidence of a major US covert operation aimed at destabilizing Iran is strong. The President has adopted a message theme to play to the audience of the people of Iran and support the objective of destabilizing Iran.

Recently in Paris, President Bush said when referring to the Iranian response to the EU incentives-for-stopping-enrichment offer, “It’s an indication to the Iranian people that their leadership is willing to isolate them further. Our view is we want the Iranian people to flourish and to benefit.”

This kind of message is very similar to the one meant for the people of Iraq before the 2003 invasion. It’s the separation message. The US Government is a friend of the Iranian people. It’s is only the Government of Iran that is bad.

FIGHTING THE FCC: FROM JOSH STEARNS OF FREE PRESS

“CNN and Dow Jones reported last night that a House Subcommittee voted “to stop” the FCC’s media ownership rule change. A few people have asked how this new development within the House appropriations process impacts the Resolution of Disapproval.

The amendment that was introduced by Hinchey and Serrano and passed through the subcommittee last night was a “limitation amendment,” so called because it amends the bill that funds the FCC to limit its ability to spend money implementing the cross-ownership rule. It essentially holds the rule in limbo for 1 fiscal year by denying the FCC money to spend on staff to process the mergers.

This new push in the House is another indication of the widespread outrage at the FCC’s rush to gut the cross-ownership rule. We support the spirit of the appropriators effort to freeze the FCC rules for a year, but we are continuing to focus our efforts on a permanent solution that has already passed the Senate, the Resolution of Disapproval.”

RIGHT WING GROUP OPPOSES MEDIA CONCENTRATION

Consolidation Also Creates Self-Serving Media That Seek to Protect Interests of Corporate Parents Rather Than the Public

WASHINGTON, DC (October 31, 2007) — The right-wing Parents Television CouncilÃ¢â€žÂ¢ testified at the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) hearing on localism today, saying that media consolidation helps destroy the concept of community standards of decency and has created an anti-competitive, anti-family business
model employed throughout the cable television industry. Excerpts from the statement given by Dan Isett, director of corporate and government affairs for the PTC, at the hearing are found below:

“On the surface, there would seem to be little connection between our mission and the media ownership issues that bring us together today, but indeed there is no question that the consolidation of media outlets has led to a coarsening of television content, a destruction of the concept of community standards of decency, an unresponsive, irresponsible news media that routinely ignores news unfavorable to its parent corporation, and a cable television industry that effectively functions as a cartel, forcing consumers and families to buy enormous amounts of unwanted programming just to get access to the family
programming they actually want.

“Media consolidation leads to disproportionate influence over programming decisions by executives often thousands of miles away. In fact, the Center for Creative Voices in Media — a group the PTC has debated decency issues with many times — published a report chronicling how 96% of radio indecency fines have been levied against stations belonging to the four largest ownership groups, but those groups own only 12% of all radio stations. Conversely, the 88 percent of the nation’s radio stations not owned by these four station groups, with a combined national audience share of 51 percent, were responsible for
just four percent of FCC indecency violations from 2000-2003.

JOAN RIVERS FINDS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SOME NEWS–ABOUT HERSELF!

Joan Rivers, a master of self-promotion, thrown off British TV Show Loose Women for Russell Crowe outburst

GOOD NEWS: On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was “heavy-handed” and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers. …

Irony Alert: AP Attacks Blogs for Quoting Their Stories, Then Quotes Even More Extensively from Blogs

KNOW-WHO: HOW TIM RUSSERT GOT INTO TV
From Martin Nolan of the Boston Globe:

Daniel Patrick Moynihan had the touch of a poet. He was also a practical man. In 1982, after Tim Russert’s political skills had assured Moynihan’s reelection, the senator invited me to lunch in New York. “I need your advice,” he said. “Let me clutch my wallet,” I replied. “No, no. This is easy,” he said, grandly announcing his mission: “We need to get Russert a real job.”

Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ At that 1982 lunch, I suggested to his boss that Tim’s legal training was sufficient to command a good position. “At what kind of law?,” Moynihan growled “Anti-trust? No, he should be in the media business. He has the skills, the knowledge and what I’d call pizzazz.” Ã¢â‚¬Â¦

We then talked about someone both Moynihan and I knew. David W. Burke, son of a firefighter, became a top aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. His next stop was Albany, where Burke advised Gov. Hugh L. Carey, whom Moynihan called “the best damn governor of New York since Al Smith.” Burke then worked on Wall Street before becoming executive vice president of ABC News and later president of CBS News.

Dave Burke was the role model for Russert’s path because the intersection of news and politics requires a traffic cop with the qualities Moynihan listed.

JUSTIN RAIMIMONDO OF ANTIWAR.COM (VIS UNDERNEWS)

Enough already with the encomiums to Tim Russert, whose untimely death has sparked a veritable chorus of eulogies depicting him as the epitome of objectivity and the greatest of journalists. This is all coming, quite naturally, from his fellow journalists and intellectual gatekeepers, who share his prejudices, his politics, and – alas – his shortcomings. It’s time for a little Russert revisionism.

As Bill Moyers pointed out in Buying the War, his trenchant PBS documentary on how the War Party successfully sold us on the invasion of Iraq, Russert’s show was a favored venue for the administration to publicize stories they had planted in the media. Administration officials would get booked on Meet the Press and point to their phony reports as “proof” of Saddam’s WMDs.

PETER BOYER IN THE NEW YORKER ON KEITH OLBERMANN

There will be protests for single payer health care in New York Tomorrow at 6 at 34 and 9th. Ralph Nader and others will speak. Last night, I visited the impressive new Revolution Book Store on West 26th Street near 7th Avenue. As it was opened its new location, across the street, the Economist Magazine was having a function. The Bookstore had the thesis; the magazine, the antithesis and and, according to the former, and no doubt to the dismay of the latter, Comrade Bob Avakian has the syntheisis. (He says: Communism is coming back and much more!)

I say Chelsea is HAPPENING.

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