How do you feel about the Pentagon admitting Psy Ops plants in CNN?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Poll question: How do you feel about the Pentagon admitting Psy Ops plants in CNN?

If the headline doesn't make immediate sense, the talk of talk radio yesterday was the admission from the Pentagon that they had planted Psy Ops..."Psychological Operatives"...in cable news stations like CNN. The Pentagon's defense of their actions is that they had to plant false and misleading information in the mass media in order to throw the enemy off balance.

[wryter2000]

1. Other -- not surprised but royally pissed, esp. at CNN eom

eom

[xultar]

19. THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEN SAYING ALL ALONG - TINFOIL HATS

REJOICE!!
:tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat:

[On the Road]

2. I'm Not as Shocked About Their Doing It

as I am about their admitting it.

[charlie]

3. What compelled them to admit it?

It's hardly a revelation, but the confirmation is big surprise.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. I don't know...

...I don't recall the reason(s) for the admission being discussed yesterday, but it is typical Bush-Cheney maneuvering. Get caught red-handed in something and immediately explain why your actions were necessary, without any trace of apology.

:grr:

[charlie]

15. Is it this?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/02/pentagon.media/

The story here is not that there were plants, but that official military spokesmen suckered CNN into reporting the Fallujah assault earlier than it was actually planned to occur.

If CNN is truly angry and they had any fucking gumption (right, I know, dream on), they'd point out that troops were assembled and poised to flatten Fallujah in the late spring, but were called off because it was deemed risky for Dubya's electoral campaign. We gave enemies 4-5 months reprieve to fortify and better prepare to kill our guys, just so the Chimpster wouldn't have to worry about his ambitions being thwarted by a battle gone awry.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

17. Not the whole story...

...what came through on Air America Radio yesterday was that the Pentagon had someone "on the payroll" at CNN...employed full-time...for the sole purpose of feeding false information to the station. The Pentagon would send the stories to that individual, and they would make sure they got on the air.

One of the things Randi Rhodes mentioned yesterday...as if we didn't already know it...was that the "TERRORISTS ARE PLANNING TO DISRUPT OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WITH TERRA" stories were 100% hogwash. The stories weren't based on "intelligence," they were based on the Pentagon FEEDING the story to the mass media.

That, in addition to the standard Karl Rove tactic EVERY TIME BUSH got caught with his hand in the cookie jar: "The White House confirmed today that there is credible intelligence suggesting that terrorists will attack in the next 48 hours," blah blah blah blah BLAH. Then Tom Ridge would move the terra level up a color. When people stopped talking about Bush, he would move it down a level. Coincidence? NO.

To steal a line from the old movies, the American people have been played like a cheap violin.

:grr:

[charlie]

18. Oy, that is different

And all too familiar. Do it in plain sight, who's gonna stop them? We're a nation of idiots...

Thanks for the clarification.

[Dr.Phool]

6. It's not even a confirmation

It's old news. I recall reading about it at least 2 years ago, but can't recall exactly where. Maybe MoJo or FAIR, etc

[gottaB]

20. yes, I recall that story as well

about psyops interns at NPR and CNN. This seems to be yet another incident.

Feels kind like getting deja vu in the Matrix.

[zann725]

13. Their arrogance is getting scarier and scarier by the minute.

[Az_lefty]

5. This shit is so overwhelming, nothing shocks me any more.

:cry:

[ewagner]

7. CNN was not pleased

IMO Brown was pissed that they were apparently used by the Pentagon. My hope is that CNN will be far more skeptical about anything the Pentagon hand feeds them.

If you want a contrast in the way the two stories were handled, I was flipping through the channels after Brown finished his segment and caught the guest host on MSNBC's Scarborough Country just as they were cutting to commercial break. Her lead-in for the segment to follow the commercial was (not exact, but close) "When we come back we'll talk about how CNN helped fool the insurgents"
What a contrast!!!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

9. Well, Scarborough Country is nothing more than...

...the MSNBC version of "The Sean Hannity Show." MSNBC has been aggressively grooming Scarborough in Hannity's image. Guest hosts are expected to carry on the tradition.

It's the same as when Andrea Mitchell subs for Tweety on "Hardball"...she's just like him, only to a much more sickening degree.

[Kahuna]

11. I haven't followed the story. But Brown needs a DU comeuppance..

How many DUers have emailed Brown about his naive coverage only to be ridiculed as tin foil hat material. Email campaign to Brown, anyone?

[Killarney]

8. can I have a link?

I missed the story. Thanks.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. I heard it on Air America Radio yesterday, so sorry...no link, but:

...hopefully someone else reading the thread can provide you with one.

[ewagner]

12. Here

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1035368>

[Killarney]

14. Thank you very much!

:toast:

[chookie]

16. It is plainly in view

Disinformation yes, but they also tell us what to think.

I read stuff off the wire services and know what they have to work with and what they select to report, and how they choose to present it, and clearly they have a "moral" we are supposed to get out of every story.

Wolf Blitzer's former job was at the Jerusalem Post. But that's just a coincidence, I'm sure. :eyes:

All the US news outlets do this to some extent -- Fox is most blatant, but CNN is a close second -- just more subtle and less honest about its bias.

[undergroundpanther]

21. Farking Iceholes

I really think psyops should be seen as what it is sophisticated forms of coercion,lying and manipulation.Same with advertising.
Fuck all the liars.
The news shouldn't be about bullshitting or selling.
Everyone knows LEADERS start wars and make the people fight for THEM, not the other way around.Liars that are in power use sycophant psyop pieces of shit to convince us to do the bush admins fighting for them so they can steal more plunder from us AND Iraq.

Fuck Them!

[donkeyotay]

22. they're self-serving bastards who claim they're only doing their duty

KO had one of these psych-ops confessionals on months ago. This one was admitting that the statue toppling was one of theirs. But the guy was angry and defensive claiming that it's war man! This saves American lives... Bullshit.

Lying to the American people doesn't save soldiers lives in Iraq. They wouldn't be in Iraq if these bastards would stop believing their self-serving rationalizations that a free people can remain free without free debate, free dissent and access to the facts, no matter how inconvenient that may be for some.

[Old and In the Way]

23. War on America

A democracy requires an informed electorate to survive.....the corporate news function is to disinform. There goes democracy.

[FlyByNight]

24. I don't see why the Pentagon would resort to planting...

propagandists and liars in various CNN-like outfits (or CNN itself).

The mainstream media already consistently roll over for the regime's every damn whim and they refuse to ask any relevant questions about Bush's reactionary foreign and domestic policies. They're already fascist enablers.

Seems redundant.