by D. Cupples | We ordinary Americans expect sleight of hand from magicians on a stage. We expect dishonest manipulation of our perception (even lies) from corporations advertising products for sale during our favorite TV shows. As taxpayers, we should never accept corporate-style public-relations campaigns from public servants whom we pay to run our government and protect our nation.
A few years ago, we learned that high-level Bush Administration officials had misled our nation into invading Iraq (e.g., false claims about WMDs and an Iraq-9/11 connection). A few weeks ago, we learned that FEMA staged a fake press conference with staff posing as journalists. Today, Think Progress reports that Condoleezza Rice did something similar after becoming Secretary of State:
"In 2003, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice helped push America into war with Iraq. She disregarded at least two CIA memos and a personal phone call from CIA Director George Tenet stating that the evidence behind Iraq’s uranium acquisition was weak. She infamously said, '[W]e don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.'
"In an interview with C-SPAN’s Washington Journal today, Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler, author of Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, revealed that after President Bush promoted her to Secretary of State, Rice mounted a 'public relations' campaign to distance herself from the pre-war fiasco.
"As part of this PR campaign, she directed an aide to 'plant a question' asking if she would run for President, in order to help “negate American memories of her very direct role” in invading Iraq:
'She had a very deliberative public relations strategy when she became Secretary of State to help erase the images of how ineffective she had been as National Security Adviser. And I describe how one of her aides even planted a question with a friendly journalist to ask whether she would be interested in running for president — to give her the aura of someone who might have presidential aspirations, make her seem more powerful than she was.
'And that all helped negate American memories over her very direct role in the invasion of Iraq.'" (links and emphasis in original)
A few things are frightening here: first, that any journalist would essentially conspire with a public official to manipulate the public -- instead of accurately reporting facts. (I didn't say it's "surprising": how could I, having blogged about the recent journalistic lapses of Time Magazine and its star columnist Joe Klein?)
Second is that so many Bush Administration officials have repeatedly (perhaps routinely) fed the public misleading (perhaps false) statements to further their own personal or political agendas. In theory, these people work for us: aren't they duty bound to report the truth to their employers?
Third, and perhaps most frightening, is that over the last six years, many of us ordinary Americans have grown accustomed to hearing misleading (perhaps false) statements from our nation's executive branch. As long as we accept dishonesty from public servants as "business as usual," how will we ever get better results?
Memeorandum has other bloggers' reactions.
Other BN-Politics Posts:
* Defense Secretary Says Military Can't Protect U.S. Worldwide Interests
* Leahy Rejects Bush's Executive Privilege Claim
* Chicago Tribune Admits Error, Time Still Proudly Defensive
* Rudi Giuliani: Chronic Mendacity?
* Republican Bloggers Angry about CNN/YouTube Debate
* U.S. & Iraq Trade Friendship Rings, Cynics Say Tail Wagged Dog
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