I LONG FOR THE GOOD OL' DAYS

I long for the good old days, when ignorance wasn’t treated like a legitimate political position.

... Nowadays, conservative radio polemicists convulsed with hatred, writhing with rage, whip-up the uninformed, inciting them to extremism and intolerance, attitudes which are antithetical to the spirit in which this country was founded. Individuals claiming to be “pro-Life” barely hide their willingness to squeeze the life out of those who would dare to disagree with them. What does this lead to – public policy driven by hysteria and superstition, members of congress threatening judges and home grown terrorists blowing up people (I wonder what conservative radio hosts Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph liked to listen to?). These conservative mouths tell those who are frustrated and disappointed with their lives that the source of all their woes is Big Government. Conservatives like to preach about he evils of Big Government, but they are very comfortable using government power to go after their political enemies Tom Delay used Dept of Homeland Security to hunt down Texas Democrats. Republicans show a frightening facility for the techniques of totalitarianism.

The NeoCons preach morality but practice politics of personal destruction, viciously attacking and libeling anyone who disagrees with them rather than addressing their policy positions. First, an outrageous accusation about a political opponent, attributed to an “anonymous source”, appears on a conservative web-site, then Neo-con talk show ‘mouths’ or propaganda sheet (The Washington Times, : Neo-Conning the Media) “columnists” pick up the fraudulent charge and toss it around producing a heated stream of meaningless chatter. They are hoping that all the talk about the shadow charges will educe an actual material wrong-doing (if only in the minds of the gullible). The libel is later revealed to have no basis in fact, and all the participants in the mini-hysteria scurry for the nearest crack in the floor-boards. No one ever retracts anything said or admits to their contribution to the misinformation. The mainstream media who often repeat the outlandish rumors also don’t bother to clarify or admit that they were party to a hoax. And an enduring lie takes on a life of its own.

The members of the rabid right have become consummate practitioners of the Big Lie. They make up a factoid and keep repeating it till people begin to think there must be something to it. Their effectiveness at spreading disinformation and the maligning of opponents would thrill Joseph Goebbels. Frequently, these surreal charges against a perceived enemy are so twisted you have to wonder about the tortured creatures that can conjure such disturbed fantasies (Lucianne Goldberg is a case in point. I won’t even repeat some of the obscenities she has given birth to). These individuals are not journalists they are pornographers. They got their training, as it were, as political hacks or writing for wealthy conservative supported magazines and newspapers (they don’t survive on paid circulation or advertising but are kept in business by wealthy ultra-conservatives who lose millions of dollars each year keeping these propaganda sheets in circulation). The over-all purpose of the Big Lie is to confuse and thus to sabotage the informed public debate of issues.

Conservative anti-think tanks (e.g.Heritage Foundation, among others) funded by billionaires (e.g. Richard Mellon Scaiffe, and others) and corporations (e.g. ExxonMobil) were created to ape real think tanks and turn out phony studies, propaganda dressed up to look like actual legitimate examinations of an issue, spreading disinformation, unsupported conclusions and retreaded urban legends (Banana Republicans, Republican Noise Machine, Republican Noise Machine - excerpt). These ‘studies’ only reach print because they propound the beliefs of their funders. The predations of these Conservative anti-think tanks upon an informed public debate of issues have spread confusion, created controversy where there was none and helped to stop real progress from being made. These anti-think tanks are funded by the same people who buy the Government through their front men – the lobbyists. There are now 35,000 lobbyists in Washington, not counting the Republicans. The number of lobbyists has DOUBLED since the Republicans took the White House in 2000. The corporations hear the Republican prayer: “Show me the money!” and respond generously. But they know it’s money well spent.

The Neo-Cons have intimidated the main-line media (especially television network news) from covering events as they should ( The Brooks Brothers Riot of 2000 Election, Bush's Conspiracy to Riot) or from exposing the obvious distortions of fact, fallacies and twisted logic endemic to their arguments. For example, the recent tax cuts were justified with very optimistic estimates for growth of the economy (leading to increased tax revenues) but the prediction of the imminent demise of the Social Security system is based on a very different, much less optimistic estimate of economic growth – this was never pointed out by anyone in the main line news media (except for Paul Krugman in the New York Times).

It is in radio that the Neocons have been most successful at restricting the free discussion of ideas and issues. Rush Limbaugh and his evil clones were set loose by the killing of the Fairness Doctrine by Reagan FCC Chairman Mark Fowler in 1987. Congress restored the fairness doctrine by a wide bi-partisan majority but the legislation was vetoed by President Reagan. This action and media consolidation shepherded by Republican administrations opened the doors for the riot of one sided conservative talk show radio. Rush Limbaugh and some of his imitators have been quite successful, getting strong ratings, but talk shows with liberal leaning commentators have also garnered good ratings but were cancelled (Charles Grodin had the highest ratings in CNBC history but was moved from a prime-time slot to 11:00 PM and then cancelled, Jim Hightower and Phil Donahue had high ratings were also cancelled by their networks – cf. The Republican Noise Machine - Brock).

Media consolidation in the hands of fewer and fewer large companies has helped the Neocon effort to limit debate. A 2003 study of ownership consolidation in the radio industry conducted by the Future of Music Coalition found that “ten parent companies now dominate the radio spectrum, radio listenership and radio revenues, controlling two-thirds of both listeners and revenues nationwide…
Virtually every local market is dominated by four firms controlling 70 percent of market share or greater. In smaller markets, consolidation is more extreme. The largest four firms in most small markets control 90 percent of market share or more” (The Republican Noise Machine – Brock). “Today the top five radio station owners in the country, controlling 45 powerful radio stations, broadcast 310 hours of nationally syndicated rightwing talk every weekday. Only 5 hours of non-conservative talk are aired nationally on those stations” (Republican Noise Machine, p300).

Television personalities imitating reporters produce slanted, deceptive reports to appeal to Neo-Conservative interests add more disinformation to the air-waves ( John Stossel). This all adds to a dumbing down of the debate. People are spending time just trying to correct so many fantasy facts and phony charges ( Bushes Allege Clintons Vandalized White House Computers) - what are commonly referred to as lies. (I wonder if there is a conservative who can present an argument, a plan or a proposal that isn’t based on lies, twisted facts or logic from some other dimension.)

Taken altogether these Neo-con radio mouths, phony television reporters and print propagandists form a circus of the disturbed, the seriously weird and the stubbornly perverse. They really are not interested in anything being accomplished. They seek to get in the way of anything getting done. The strange thing is they actually owe a debt of gratitude to those they so viciously attack. For without the targets of their seething anger they would have no purpose to their lives at all. And they certainly wouldn’t be enjoying the ample compensation they receive from the satisfied corporations and wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires they strive so hard to please.

To understand how the Neo-Cons are undermining our democracy read Banana Republicans by Stauber and Rampton. Then read The Republican Noise Machine (especially chapt. 11: “Hate Radio” and Chapt. 12 “Information Wars”) by David Brock. These are two extremely important books which describe the destructive Neo-Con political strategy. They are both meticulously documented and thoroughly referenced. David Brock is particularly feared and hated in the Neo-Con attack machine because he has seen it work from the inside (see Blinded by the Right – Block). The tactics of the Neo-Cons will only succeed with the acquiescence of an apathetic electorate. Those who don’t get informed and don’t call them on their propaganda and lies (by objecting to media sycophants who repeat Neo-Con Big Lies) only help those who would undermine our Democracy.

Move-on.org has it set up so you can email newspapers across the country to register your disgust at the way the media sycophants are pandering to Neocons by slanting their presentation of the news and by not aggressively reporting cases of the Republicans use of propaganda delivered by the news media. It is up to YOU, who are reading this article(not somebody else) to take a stand for democracy. Without your voice we might see it slip away and sooner than you might think!