[NYTr] Hard Lessons from MoveOn Fiasco (Powerful Analysis by Parry) Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:30:05 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [This is an excellent analysis by Robert Parry of the asymmetric psychological warfare that goes on between an incompetent, lazy, divided, preening, self-absorbed, determinedly luddite "left" -- which seems to take absolute pride in its ineptitude and naivete -- and the right, which has for decades displayed forward-looking technical competence, superb propaganda skills, ideological unity and the ability to keep their eyes on the prize. As Parry notes, the left has nothing comparable. They're losers, but they're pure. So pure they can't correct their own parochial factionalism and ideological myopia enough to identify the great mass of broader apolitical psychology and have any impact on it in the way they claim they want to. Move Along, Pure Losers, there's nothing to see here. Dumb, dumb, dumb. -NY Transfer] Hard Lessons from MoveOn Fiasco By Robert Parry The furor over MoveOn.orgbs silly bGeneral Betray Usb ad b which led to a bipartisan Senate condemnation of MoveOn after Republicans blocked a move to include right-wing smears against military veterans like Democrats Max Cleland and John Kerry b carries a bitter lesson for the American Left. Simply put: This is what happens when one side of American politics b the Right b spends three decades and many billions of dollars building a sophisticated and powerful media apparatus and the other side b the Left b does next to nothing on media infrastructure. Yes, itbs true that many Democratic senators behaved spinelessly, but a leading reason for their political cowardice is the Republicansb extraordinary ability to whip up national frenzies over anything that can be portrayed as an affront to them or their allies. The Rightbs powerful ideological media b stretching from newspapers, magazine and book publishing to talk radio, TV networks and the Internet b is arguably the most intimidating force in modern American politics. There is nothing remotely comparable b in size, reach or funding b on the Left. Indeed, this asymmetry in U.S. media not only has contributed mightily to the existence of George W. Bushbs presidency and the Iraq War, but may be viewed by future historians as a key factor in what doomed the American Republic, as propaganda, fear-mongering and intimidation substituted for fact, reason and balanced debate. Any misstep by Democrats or the Left is amplified through the Rightbs giant echo chamber, resonating to all corners of the country and whipping up public outrage. In contrast, mistakes or abuses by Republicans and the Right get far less attention and often are ignored entirely (assuming the offense isnbt tapping for gay sex in a menbs bathroom). After the Right starts one of its cascading campaigns of outrage, the mainstream news media sees little choice but to report on whatbs already so widely disseminated that itbs crossed a threshold of bwhatbs news.b Indeed, mainstream journalists risk being accused of bliberal biasb if they donbt start writing about what the Right has gotten everyone talking about. So, the MoveOn fiasco becomes a front-page story pushing aside more significant information about brutal ethnic cleansing in Iraq occurring under the eyes of Gen. Petraeus's forces -- see the lower half of this article in the Sept. 22 edition of the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/world/middleeast/22iraq.html or evidence that President Bush is transforming U.S. Special Forces units into bdeath squads.b [See Consortiumnews.combs bGeorge W. Bushbs Thug Nationb at http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/092007.html ] Illiberal Press Although the Right has long denounced the mainstream corporate media as bliberal,b the reality is quite different. Many of the publishers and media moguls are personally right-wing or neoconservative, while their hired news executives know that their careers can be sidetracked or destroyed if they get labeled bliberalb by the Rightbs attack apparatus. See, for instance, Consortiumnews.com's "The Bush Rule of Journalism" at: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/011705.html . At times, mainstream journalists even will act preemptively to prove they're bnot liberal,b creating stories that will look good to the Right. For instance, after Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992, some senior editors at major news organizations vowed to be tougher on a Democrat than they were on any Republican. What followed was the merging of interests between the growing right-wing media and the mainstream press. Everyone piled on. The green-lighting of this bprove-webre-not-liberalb pattern carried over to Campaign 2000 during which the New York Times and the Washington Post led the way in demeaning Vice President Al Gore for his choice of clothing and his supposedly dishonest boasting. In reality, many of the accusations against Gore were based on inaccurate reporting, fabricated quotes and tendentious interpretations of his words. But the biased journalism brought no known punishments to the reporters who were responsible. By contrast, George W. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, were free to play fast and loose with facts and face almost no challenge to their honesty. Careerist journalists sensed intuitively that Al Gore had become a kind of political free-fire zone but Bush/Cheney could fire back and hurt you if you got on their wrong side. [For more on how this imbalanced reporting came to pass, see Robert Parrybs Secrecy & Privilege or our new book, Neck Deep.] Unforced Error The MoveOn ad, a pun on Gen. David Petraeusbs name, represented a classic case of an unforced error by a left-of-center group. MoveOn and its ad agency, Fenton Communications, should have recognized that mocking someonebs name is both juvenile and offensive. It can be viewed as an insult to a personbs ethnic heritage. Republicans and pundits b from right-wing bloggers to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen b then needled the word bbetrayb to claim that MoveOn was accusing Petraeus of btreason,b even though bbetrayb has many lesser meanings, such as betraying a trust or betraying onebs friends. Many puffed-up chests later, the Republicans were branding Democrats as bpuppetsb of bextremistb groups like MoveOn, and Democrats were scurrying around desperately seeking cover. At a Sept. 20 news conference, President Bush called the ad bdisgustingb and charged that bmost Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org.b Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, then brought an amendment to the Senate floor and asserted, bFor MoveOn.org and their left-wing allies to brand General Petraeus a traitor and a liar crossed a historic line of decency. It was a despicable political attack by a radical left-wing interest group.b Before passing Cornynbs amendment, the Republicans blocked a substitute amendment by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, which would have bstrongly condemned attacks on the honor, integrity and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person or organization.b The Boxer substitute pointedly would have covered the Republican ad campaign in 2002 that likened triple-amputee war veteran Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden and the dishonest bSwift boatb attacks that took aim in 2004 at John Kerrybs decorated service in Vietnam. But the Republicans werenbt going to let their clear shot at MoveOn be muddled. So, after preventing the Boxer substitute from getting the 60 votes it needed for consideration, GOP senators pushed through a resolution bto specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org.b In the 72-25 vote, 22 Democrats joined a solid phalanx of Republicans denouncing MoveOn by name, an extraordinary act by the Senate in singling out a group of American citizens for criticizing a government official during an important public debate. By contrast, one only needs to contemplate what would happen if Democrats dared sponsor a resolution denouncing abrasive right-wing commentators by name for bandying about the actual charge of btreasonb against Iraq War critics, including people such as Scott Ritter who served in the military. The Republicans and the Rightbs media machine surely would howl about censorship and the importance of the First Amendment. But the maintenance of this double standard is guaranteed by the remarkable power of the Right's media infrastructure versus the virtual absence of one on the Left. Today, the Rightbs media machine already is busily spinning the nay vote from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the bnot presentb from Barack Obama as a way to spread the MoveOn fiasco into Campaign 2008. [Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. ] * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================