It's long overdue.
Bush Is Racking Up "Frequent Liar Miles"Friday, 17 January 2003
Dennis Hans
Strategy of "lie and rely" relies on media to disseminate Dubya’s deceptionsLyndon Johnson is remembered for lying about Vietnam, Richard Nixon for lying about Watergate, Bill Clinton for lying about adultery. George W. Bush is known as a “straight shooter.”
What’s wrong with that picture? Bush has, after all, racked up more “frequent liar miles” than any other politician in recent memory.
Not familiar with “frequent liar miles”? I coined the expression to pay tribute to the staying power of Bush’s lies. After all, a lie is of no use to the teller if it is promptly branded a lie and the teller a liar. Not only does he not benefit from the lie, his now-tarnished image makes it more difficult to get anyone to believe subsequent lies.
...
In stunning contrast, Bush’s lies are broadcast as truth. They originate at the White House and are transmitted to network amplification centers in New York and Washington, at which point the lie leaves the president’s control. He then must rely on men named Brokaw, Jennings, Rather and Lehrer to treat the presidential lie with respect and deliver it to every nook and cranny in America via “the people’s airwaves.” The longer and farther the lie flies, the more “frequent liar miles” the president accumulates.
...
Little King George has received infinitely too much unquestioned and improper support from the media over his terms as President (and before as well, which in part accounts for the fact he even managed to get him within ten to fifteen points of Gore such that the
Republican Electronic & Dirty Tricks Electoral Advantage Program was almost able to make him the winner of that contest).
Don't be fooled either, he continues to benefit from an enormous amount of credulous, conspiratorial support and promotion from the media, despite the fact that, in deference to known public opinion, they're willing to be somewhat critical of him with respect to the "war" (occupation).
The media remains a problem and a threat, perhaps the biggest, to the health of this country's continued Democracy; media reform (by means of breaking up the Corporate oligopoly that is limiting our access to information) is one of our greatest needs. We need to know what our government--and it's Corporate controllers--are doing and without a functioning, independent media, we'll just continue being kept in the dark while being presented with a false, misleading description of reality (that supports the agenda of those whose interests do not include what's best for the people of this country).