You can tell that things are not going well for the rightwing agenda and the Bush administration in general: the propaganda is starting to pile up thicker and faster than ever before. Here's just a sampling of the latest twists, turns, and techniques in spin land.

EXHIBIT A: PBS (Propaganda for Bush Services, Inc.)

Man, you tune in PBS thinking MAYBE, just maybe there would be a little break from having shovels full of steaming horseshit heaved at you by the networks. But no. There was only about three minutes that were NOT the "nightly news according to Victoria Clarke and Karl Rove." But what can you expect by an outfit funded largely by oil companies and ADM, the genetically engineered "supermarket to the world."

You know, back in the pre-corporate-propaganda days, news shows, especially the supposedly erudite PBS would have as "experts," well... REAL experts. We'd hear the editor of JANES (the internationally acknowledged experts on things military, past and present) speaking on military hardware. You might hear a higher level official from the World Health Organization talking about war-related public health issues. Or the chairman of the country's largest interfaith council speaking on the attitude of America's church's toward the war. But no, what are now routintely presented by the media as "experts" are people with little or no really relevant, and sometimes downright inappropriate, backgrounds.

We might now hear a lieutenant from Des Moines who has been in Iraq for three weeks presented as "spokesman" on current Iraqi social issues. Or a paper pusher from the Brookings Institute with a background in statistics as our latest expert on Middle East politics. Or a lawyer with the Cato Institute (corporate front group) as our expert on military hardware! We SHOULD be seeing, as credits of expertise, Constitutional scholars from Harvard or Yale, public health experts from WHO, human rights experts from Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch, food distribution experts from Oxfam, etc. What we are getting more of with each passing day, however, are "sales reps" from rightwing corporate front groups like the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Baker Institute, Hoover Institution, etc.

Case in point: tonight 4/14 on PBS, a Victoria Clarke "sorta lookalike" from the American Enterprise Institute named Danielle Pletka was our Middle East policy "expert" on the Juan Williams slot. Debating the "church ladyesque" Pletka was an Arab-American professor (didn't get his name) who was no doubt chosen because he looked like a 60s hippie, complete with shoulder-length hair who acted as if he were in the throes of a manic episode. No engineering of slant here, eh?

Sometimes the Best-Laid Propaganda Plans Backfire...

Just when you thought that the brain power of the Bush administration and Pentagon couldn't hit any lower (and we're talking combined forces here!), they tunnel down through sheer bedrock to new depths of idiocy. Tonight on PBS in a misjudged effort to show how the US was taking "constructive steps" to reclaim law and order in Baghdad, a videotape was shown of the US military handing out M-16s to Iraqi men - lines of them. All they had to do was sign up to become part of the militia police force.

Can you imagine going into NYC or LA after a major breakdown in law and order, not having a clue who was who (ie, not known the Brooklyn computer geeks from the Bronx gang members) and doing a call for all men who wanted to join the "militia" - line up and we'll give you guns?!!

EXHIBIT B: Bending the Nielsen Stats to Fit around the Big Lie

Man, to hear the media tell it, the rightwing "patriot" movement is leaving the moderates and liberals in the dust. Well, it's a big fat lie, perpetuated by propagandeurs who think that belief in this lie will force people to the right through an "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" capitulation.

Here are the hard cold facts:

Before the war in Iraq, the number of Americans tuning into the evening news editions of the conservative to rightwing news sources represented by NBC, FOX, CNN, and MSNBC COMBINED was 12.81 million.

By contrast, the number of Americans tuning into the only two moderate (Dan Rather) to mildly liberal (Peter Jennings) evening news shows on CBS and ABC was a whopping 19.35 million. That means that, roughly, only 3 in EIGHT Americans were turning to conservative news, even though there are twice as many stations to choose from.

Now, you want to see how the media can spin even THESE statistics? As the lead story in the 4/14 NY Times Business Section, the headline reads "Nightly News Feels Pinch of 24-Hour News." This article tries to build a case about what "big losses" CBS and ABC, esp. have taken due to competition by (all conservative) 24-hour news stations, notably CNN. What are these losses based on? On Nielsen statistics from a 15-day period, from March 20 to April 4! During this time, the numbers shifted temporarily, with 17.39 million tuning into CBS and ABC, while 18.71 million tuned into NBC, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC. However, much of this shift can be attributed to temporary surges in the 3/20-4/4 period precipitated by the publicity stunts pulled by both NBC and FOX - the Peter Arnett/Geraldo flap. In addition, the death of NBC's David Bloom drew a surge of viewers to NBC. But, for the SIX MONTH period prior to this little "window of opportunity," CBS and ABC consistently led the conservative field by the figures stated above (19.35 million viewers to a combined total of 12.81 million).

On the same NY Times page as the Network Stats, there was an article about how every single jingoistic war flick put out by Hollywood in recent months flopped at the box office. The spin: people didn't want to see war films while the real thing ws going on. But this doesn't explain the ones released before the action broke out!

Meanwhile, we are still hearing from the rightwing media about how the Dixie Chicks and Michael Moore took "losses" for their "unpopular" stands against the Bush regime. What losses? What unpopularity? The Chicks album surged ahead from 6 to 4 on national charts after their comment, and every concert is sold out for months to come. Michael Moore's book went back to number one, and his film proceeded to break box offices records for a documentary - all AFTER the "unpopular stand."

EXHIBIT C: The Media Demonization of Martha Burke Unmasked

I heard Martha Burke speak at the National Press Club this AM (4/15). She was calm, kindly, eloquent, quietly assertive, and engaging. In short,nothing at all like the wacko femiNazi the rightwing media would have you believe she is! When she was able to give her unspun, unedited explanation for the boycott of the Augusta Golf Club, there was not a reasonable person listening who could fail to see the validity of her point. The corporate tycoons who go to this "old boy's club" are invariably spending dollars there that came from women (who spend more than one in every two dollars made in the U.S ). These corporazzi, who represent nearly all the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500, spend much ad money targeting women Yet women are not allowed in the club. Worse yet, a large number of the corporazzi who party there are government defense contractors who are partying with taxpayer dollars to the tune of up to half a million in a single weekend! Burke's statement was not about women's rights as much as it was about hypocrisy, injustice and the mockery of America's purported ideals these corporations make.. But, to hear the mainstream press tell it last week, you would never have known it!

During Burke's talk, it came out that the only group to officially take a stance against the protest of the club was the Claire Booth Luce foundation (the KKK also protested Burke and followers, though perhaps "unofficially" - no cross burning on her yard yet). The CBL crew are tied to the corporate front group known as the Heritage Foundation. These creeps at CBL pulled a a hateful and deceitful scam (so typical of these corporate rightwingers): they posed as activists and called Burke and reserved space on the few buses Burke's group could afford to charter to go to Augusta - then didn't show up, leaving the seats that should have gone to honest women (as opposed to deceitful little corporate housevifeys) empty.