Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Real socialism: government funded propaganda
The word "socialism" gets misused a lot. Here's a clear case: using taxpayer funds to... produce propaganda... that supports partisan groups who prop up... the government... which decides where to spend taxpayer funds.
The Buffalo News has revealed that a former spokesman for President Bush has been encouraging U.S. newspapers to run news stories from Iraq written by two combat veterans who are now embedded reporters in Iraq. The official -- Taylor Gross -- has pitched the stories as "balanced and credible viewpoints gained directly from those closest to and most affected by the Iraq War." But it turns out the veterans are from a pro-war group called Vets for Freedom that has ties to the Republican Party.
Veterans for Freedom:
* "is represented by a very sophisticated Republican public relations firm that Taylor Gross founded, called the Herald Group"
Gross was until recently a Bush spokesman. Before then he was one of the Florida 2000 rioters.
* has a website maintained by the "Donatelli Group, the same organization that provided similar services to the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
* has large, shadowy sources of funding, probably Republicans
* may be "part of the bigger propaganda campaign that has received hundreds of millions of dollars of public money over the last few years", such as the Lincoln Group.
At least most socialist governments spend money on railroads or utilities or something you can use. Bushco spends it on lying.
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