Propaganda

The second lead on the NYTimes today is a long story about the Government packaging News, and distributing it through News networks without reporting they are the Source, or allowing local Stations to claim it for their own. The Times reports the Federal Government spent $254 million on Video News segments under the Bush administration. It is reported to be double that spent by the Clinton administration--no mention whether 1st Term, 2nd Term, or both. One could ask what and why is the Federal Government spending money producing News segments? Does the American Taxpayer want the Federal Government to spend slightly less than a Dollar per person to feed Garbage to the American people?

The humorous element enters with the immediately preceding story in the NYTimes. It discusses how there was systematic looting of military production centers in Iraq, quoting some unseen bureaucrat in the U.N. and a unknown bureaucrat in the new Iraqi Defense industry. The implication of the report is there was actually WMD producing capacity, but it was taken away before American Investigators could find it. Who paid for this report?

The famous Computer jargon cliche is appropriate at this time: Garbage in, Garbage out! One of the inherent Achilles' heels of totalitarian regimes comes in the form that they begin to believe their own propaganda. Democracies can be as susceptible to the same effect. The first Report proved small Stations are extremely corruptible with easy, paid supply of canned News.

Solution:
Congress should fund an independent Government News agency with the next $254 million, to investigate inner-workings of the Executive branch of the Federal Government; they to specifically cite their sources, and state the manner of their own employment. lgl