Helen Thomas: Screened Audiences, Fake News Promote Bush Agenda

[checks-n-balances]

Published on Friday, April 1, 2005 by the Hearst Newspapers
Screened Audiences, Fake News Promote Bush Agenda
Bush, Government Manipulate Media
by Helen Thomas

...Asked why the president speaks only to his supporters, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush's intention is to "educate" the people. He probably meant "indoctrinate."

Is this the president of all the people -- or just some of the people who agree with him?

It's bizarre. He's preaching to the choir, hardly the way to "educate" the public.

Controlling his audience was a prime goal of Bush's 2004 presidential campaign, when anti-war protesters were barred from his public appearances. People who openly disagreed with him were hustled out of the hall. We're now seeing the same audience control when Bush speaks about Social Security. The Secret Service and White House aides apparently spend a lot of time trying to handpick those permitted to hear him...

© 2005 Hearst Newspapers

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More at
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0401-31.htm

[susu369]

1. I love Helen Thomas

plain and simple.

:loveya:

[jaysunb]

3. me too.....

n/t

[ooglymoogly]

2. one of the few real journalists left

how long till she is am bushed

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I'm thinking

of calling my conman about this. I don't think it is right that my tax dollars are being used to pay for Republican meetings.

[susu369]

5. Good luck

(seriously) - hope the results are better than what Ms. Thomas writes about:

"The Government Accountability Office -- a congressional investigative unit -- has ruled that such government videos represent "covert propaganda." The GAO declared that agencies may not produce pre-packaged news reports "that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience" that they were made by the government.

But the White House rejected that opinion and handed reporters a memorandum from the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget directing the federal agencies to ignore the GAO verdict."

[BrklynLiberal]

6. The dummy cannot face a "real" audience