Rumsfeld wants a US Progpaganda Agency

[Hugabear]

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/rummy-wants-pro.html

Straight from Rummy's mouth: "We need someone in the United States government, some entity, not like the old USIA . . . I think this agency, a new agency has to be something that would take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that exist today. There are multiple channels for information . . . The Internet is there, pods are there, talk radio is there, e-mails are there. There are all kinds of opportunities."

[eShirl]

1. then they could privatize the propaganda agency

and call it Fox News

[TornadoTN]

2. Goebbels smiles

If there were any doubts previously, this should make your head turn.

[Mythsaje]

3. Ah, what irony.

As if such an agency didn't ALREADY exist.

[Hydra]

4. Don't they mean Rummy would like to annouce said agency?

Because we already have whole branches of gov't devoted to that purpose already.

[beltanefauve]

5. Doesn't America

already have a propoganda agency?

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I thought he used to run one, called the DOD!

[leveymg]

7. He can buy a lined pad and a pencil at the prison commissary

It'll cost him only a day's wages

[Solly Mack]

8. Nothing like a war criminal on the loose

"In Rumsfeld's view, the free press can co-exist with government sponsored/produced/paid news. "It doesn't mean we have to infringe on the role of the free press, they can go do what they do, and that's fine," says Rumsfeld. "Well, it's not fine, but it's what it is, let's put it that way.""

[malaise]

9. No one on the planet believes

Bushco's propaganda. By their deeds shall men be known. Ask Karen Hughes: Bush's Spinner to the World

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0315-30.htm
<snip>
Have you been worrying about the image of the United States overseas? Have no fear, Karen Hughes is here. George W. Bush is nominating Hughes to be under secretary of state in charge of public diplomacy. That's the administration official who oversees the government's efforts to sell the United States abroad. No one has been in this position since the summer--which indicates just how much of a priority Bush has assigned to this task. With the United States' standing abroad at a frightening low level--even though Bush's belated response to the tsunami disaster did boost the United States' image in Indonesia--the White House has done little to enhance public diplomacy. That is, if you don't count Condi Rice strutting across Europe in high-heel, black leather boots. And the nomination of uber-hawk and UN-basher John Bolton to be UN ambassador hardly sent a signal that Bush is serious about working with other nations (and respecting their desires).

What are her Hughes' qualifications for this post? Well, she has been Bush's chief spin doctor since he entered politics. Once a local television reporter, she turned to the dark side. During the 2000 campaign, she actively misled the press about key aspects of Bush's past--most notably, his military service and his drunk-driving conviction.

Add.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. 30% of the US believes it. Just saying...

[malaise]

18. They also believe in rapture

Just saying. :D

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Right. But unless and until they get raptured, it's untrue to say no one believes Bush

I wish it were true, but it's not.

[DFW]

10. Nixon proposed the very same thing back in the 1970s

It went over like a lead balloon. Hopefully, the notion will do likewise this time.

How come such proposals always come from Republicans when their popularity is at
ebb? When their MSM lapdogs are misbehaving, they suddenly want them replaced,
but when they go back to trashing Democrats, there is no further need of a government propaganda agency (since the MSM does that job effectively for them).

Maybe Rupert Murdoch hasn't responded to angry RW emails this week?

[C_U_L8R]

11. All the advertising in the world

can't make people believe that a bad product is any good.

The truth always comes to the surface, Mr Rumsfield.
And everyone knows the unfortunate truth about you and your kind.
You are a bad product.

[Rob H.]

12. The US already has one. It's called the Fox News Channel.

They've been the propaganda arm of the Bush administration since Day 1. If Rumsfeld hasn't noticed that, he's even dumber than I thought.

[Disturbed]

14. Rumsfailed is a War Criminal. He admitted this on TV.

Rumsfeld Shouldn't be Fired, He Should be Indicted
by Matthew Rothschild

“Secretary Rumsfeld has publicly admitted that . . . he ordered an Iraqi national held in Camp Cropper, a high security detention center in Iraq, to be kept off the prison’s rolls and not presented to the International Committee of the Red Cross,” the report noted. The Geneva Conventions require countries to grant the Red Cross access to all detainees. “

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0418-24.htm

[live love laugh]

24. No it's called the lapdog media--lapdog for Pugs...Pit bull for Dems. n/t

[Subdivisions]

15. That asshole's not in a German prison yet? Goddamnit! n/t

[DFW]

25. You don't want him in a German prison!

Since the Second World War, human rights consciousness has gone 180°
here in Germany, and German prisons tend to be model institutions.
Send him to Alabama or Louisiana (Angola!). German prisons are country
clubs compared to those places. Now just down the road in Romania or
Bulgaria, THAT might be a nice place for Rummy to visit. He can fly
over a few Agency detention centers on the way and wave..........

[Initech]

16. Fox News / talk radio isn't enough?

[Hugabear]

20. Apparently not

#1, they're not on the government payroll.

#2, occasionally (not very often though) they will go after neocons in power. For example, witness the RW revolt over *'s immigration reform plan last year. Put them on the government payroll, and you can tell them exactly what to say.

But don't think they wouldn't love to consolidate Faux News, Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Beck, and the rest of those assholes into one government propaganda agency.

[warren pease]

17. I though that's what corporate mass media was for. n/t

[fascisthunter]

21. Well, America Already Has Fox News

:shrug:

[allalone]

22. don't they already have faux news?

[Canuckistanian]

23. Ironic for him to be talking about "pods"

We'd call them "employees of the Defence Department"